Prose – Page 20 – Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

Extract—Six Sentence Story

Timothy sensed he was talking himself into a corner without knowing how to extract himself except through silence.

He was getting the philosophy all wrong. He was getting the theology all wrong. He was getting the science all wrong.

In spite of all that, he was grateful no one actually complained while he talked to himself on the beach waiting for the sun to rise. When the sun came up, on time as always, he understood that the Lord still loved him in spite of everything and that had been an lot of messed up everything, but all was well again.

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

I recently published an illustrated collection of stories many of which originated from these Six Sentence Story prompts. To download a free pdf copy of it, check out Stars and Stories.

Sunrise with clouds over the Atlantic Ocean

Psalm 139:1 O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.

Abstract—Six Sentence Story

Barry painted light-hearted, popular abstract art. The more light-hearted his compositions were the more popular they became and the more popular they became the more computer scientists thought they could simulate them to prove that machines were just as light-hearted as people.

Although their computer generated art looked like Barry’s, the collecting public were able to pick out an authentic Barry original with little difficulty. It had that je ne sais quoi that only Barry could bring to the canvas.

In a quote published by the gallery representing him, Barry acknowledged the predicament his imitators were in saying, “Should computers ever talk to their programmers, and programmers opened their ears to listen, they would tell them that no one in his right mind would waste time putting anything on a canvas.”

Waste of time or not Barry’s spirit didn’t mind filling canvas after canvas each of which put his soul in such a good mood that his body bubbled over with love and laughter.

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

1 Thessalonians 5:23 (KJV)
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Seal—Six Sentence Story

In a few seconds Timothy scribbled a poem in his notebook while standing on the beach waiting for the sunrise. When he got home he read it and wondered where that came from as if he had found an exotic seashell or spotted a seal in the water.

Accepting the gift he cleaned it up and posted it on his favorite sites. Although no one “liked” it nor left a comment he kept reading it over and over wondering: Where did that come from?

At the end of the day Timothy was grateful for everything: birds, clouds, beach, water and just being there. In a week he’d forget the poem because there would be another one and the days of rejoicing and wonder would start all over again.

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

I am on vacation this week without access to the internet. Hopefully I will be back by Saturday in time to post this to the Six Sentence Story group before the deadline, but if not, I have scheduled it in advance for Wednesday evening.

Toast—Six Sentence Story

He can’t fool me with those magic tricks, George thought wondering why he was wasting his time watching a guy pull rabbits out of an empty hat. He yelled at the magician, “Hey, you with that rabbit in your hand, pitch the hat and pop another bunny out of thin air!” The magician didn’t know how to convince George to shut up, but neither could George convince God to toast the magician like Zeus would have done with a lightning bolt.

Admittedly, George didn’t believe in God (nor Zeus, for that matter) so he wasn’t seriously asking for assistance. Since the magician couldn’t make George vanish with a wave of his wand—try as he might—he finally phoned the security team to escort George out.

Decades later, when the magician was too old to bewitch even toddlers, George winced as he recalled his own truth-without-love rudeness and begged God to pull some kindness out of his now empty heart which the merciful Lord was only too happy to do.

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

Acts 8:9-11
⁹But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one:
¹⁰To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God.
¹¹And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.

Grid—Six Sentence Story

John’s life did not follow a nice rectangular grid. Brief was his time from birth to final breath.

Though short with winding dead ends, he was offered along the way many opportunities to serve, if he obediently chose to do so. Sometimes he obeyed. Sometimes he had better things to do.

In the end flames burnt those better things leaving John with only a few grains of pure gold, enough—indeed more than what some of the others had—but not enough to stop his tears since there could have been so much more.

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

1 Corinthians 3:14-15
¹⁴If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
¹⁵If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Quiz: Do You Have a Biblical Worldview?

I put together this six-question multiple choice test to help people see if they have a biblical worldview, or not. There’s an answer key at the end as well as a consolation prize for those who do not pass the test.

The Test

Is abortion wrong? (Hint: Exodus 20:13)

A) Abortion is wrong.
B) People can decide for themselves whether abortion is wrong. 
C) What does abortion have to do with a biblical worldview?

How many genders are there? (Hint: Genesis 1:27)

A) There are two and only two genders.
B) People can decide for themselves how many genders there are and which gender they want to be whenever they want to be it.  
C) My gender is none of your business unless I make it your business by insisting you remember my pronouns.

If you are on the beach looking at the ocean, where do you think all of that water came from? (Hint: Genesis 6-9)

A) The water came from Noah's global flood.
B) The water got there somehow billions of years ago.  
C) Who cares where the water came from?

Given that people speak many languages today where did this linguistic diversity come from? (Hint: Genesis 11:1-9 and Douglas Petrovich’s explanation)

A) The diversity originated from God confusing the language of the people at Babel. Then the Babel dispersion began. From that dispersion language families arose.
B) The diversity happened somehow as the result of a long evolutionary process taking perhaps a million years. 
C) However it happened, no god had anything to do with it.

What’s going to happen to us? (Hint: Revelation 4-22)

A) Jesus will return for His bride. Our spirits will never cease to be.  Our bodies and souls will be renewed. The only concern will be whether we are part of His bride, or not.
B) Humanity will go on for millions, if not billions, of years searching the stars for other intelligent lifeforms and then it will go extinct.
C) Whatever happens there will be no heaven, no hell, no nothing—--Get used to it!

Who is Jesus? (Hint: See this list of Bible verses.)

A) Jesus is God, the second Person of the Trinity.
B) Jesus, like Buddha and Socrates, was a great guy with sound moral teaching whom we should use as a model if we want to be good like he was.
C) Jesus never existed.

The Answer Key

How did you do on the test?

If you answered A for each of the above, then your worldview is biblical. If you answered B or C, even once, you need to ask yourself: What made you think those answers had any chance of being correct?

The Consolation Prize

For those who flunked the test there’s still Buddha, Sarasvati, Gaia, Thor, Moloch, Lucifer and Cosmic Consciousness to name a few of the many options that remain. Pick one or more of them. Then think and think and think going down, down, down the rabbit hole until…

Until when?

…until you get tired of the futility and long for the real thing.

Console—Six Sentence Story

Robert walked up to the pastor while he was delivering the sermon, lay flat on the platform in front of the congregation and screamed at the top of his voice, “Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!” Then he rose and walked with indifference to the back of the church expecting a lecture of some sort from Jeremy because of the disturbance he caused. In his own defense he would argue that all he was trying to do was call on the name of the Lord to prove that such magic tricks don’t work especially for the likes of him.

Jeremy, who let Robert enter wondering what delightful mischief was on his mind today, waited for him unsure whether to reprimand or console. Without understanding what good it would do but with Robert’s permission Jeremy followed the request of a soft inward voice to put his hands on each side of Robert’s head and say, “Jesus!”

It surprised Jeremy to see Robert crumble to the floor weeping with an uncontrolled joy knowing finally that even someone like himself could never be the same again.

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

This tale is fictional. However, if you have a born-again relationship with the Holy Spirit, what happened between Jeremy and Robert is not the result of magic tricks nor hypnosis. Hearing His soft inward voice should not be confused with talking to oneself (nor with some demon’s temptation to do something inappropriate). His voice will tell you what to do. You will not likely feel comfortable doing it, but He responds to your obedience out of love for you and those around you for His own glory.

Strain—Six Sentence Story

For Stan the idea that anything might exist put a strain on what he could philosophically tolerate. Asserting himself he told his students that there wasn’t a single good reason why any of them were here.

But all of that was before the accident, the emergency room, the coma and the visitations. Things started to click when one visitor with attractive horns offered him a full twenty years in exchange for his spirit.

Stan wished he could have told his students what he discovered before his life support was removed. He consoled himself with the thought that they would find it more credible if they heard it from someone else.

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

Melancholy—Six Sentence Story

The hostility between Steve and Bobby was miraculously resolved during the funeral of their older-by-twelve-years sister and Fred’s wife, Lily. During Fred’s eulogy for his wife he handed Steve and Bobby separate boxes containing mementos of their lives from infancy through grade school that Lily saved having watched over them many decades ago. He then handed them envelops with the words “Last Will” written on them containing a letter asking her two brothers to stop fighting with each other.

Touched by a sense of melancholy while going through the box he received from Fred, Bobby apologized to and forgave Steve who seeing this as a sign of weakness announced to all at the funeral that this long-overdue confession coming from the likes of Bobby was a miracle (which it may well have been).

In spite of that remark peace between them lasted until Steve insisted moments later that he get credit for being the one who apologized first which everyone at the funeral knew was a lie. Through the resulting commotion Fred called for silence and handed the brothers another envelop containing Lily’s second Last Will which simply read, “Didn’t I tell you two to STOP FIGHTING?”

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

1 John 2:9
He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.

Security—Six Sentence Story

Neither Timothy nor Martha had a clue how to grow stuff as they looked at the good ground in front of them having enough stones to make a small mountain. Some neighbors reminded them that when winter came they were going to starve. Every time they heard the word starve they giggled without knowing why.

Come summer the crops grew. Come harvest time the yield was a hundredfold. Come winter Timothy and Martha, ignoring the neighbors’ security concerns, opened their doors to those hungry enough to stop by to make sure no one in the village starved.

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

Matthew 13:23
But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.