Prose – Page 41 – Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

Home – Six Sentence Story

Soon after the murder of his daughter, Timothy’s wife died in an accident brought on by the distraction of sorrow. Timothy sold their house and moved to a basement apartment of a building owned by the church to house members of their fellowship needing a place to live. Much of the money Timothy earned he donated to this church and they shielded him in the basement.

Although he didn’t feel at home anywhere without his wife and daughter, this was where he returned after Helen’s dispatch to the tunnel and the successful extraction of the trafficked children from the van.

He would be in that apartment for the next five years until the church, knowing his skills, asked if he could train prospective chaplains in defensive operations in a violent land. After being there a couple of years, one autumn day the group they were defending was attacked, and though they repelled the attackers, Timothy was hit and he found his way home.

Denise offers the word “home” for this week’s Six Sentence Stories. Continued from Gear – Six Sentence Story.

For those curious about where I imagined Timothy was sent by his church see Wes Bentley’s sermon at Calvary Chapel Miami Beach describing Far Reaching Ministries and Sudan. As a warning for those few who might like to watch the sermon, Pastor Bentley’s description of the persecution and terrorism is explicit.

GirlieOnTheEdge Denise Farley's six-sentence-stories icon — GirlieOnTheEdge Denise Farley’s six-sentence-stories icon

Sunday Walk 35 – Easter

αναστας δε πρωι πρωτη σαββατου εφανη πρωτον μαρια τη μαγδαληνη αφ ης εκβεβληκει επτα δαιμονια
Mark 16:9 Textus Receptus with various translations

Mario Murillo described a woman who was once demon possessed and sold on the streets in “Mary Magdalene on the Day Jesus Died”. After Jesus cast out her demons she followed Him. Then came the crucifixion.

And then came the power of the resurrection.

In his Easter blog post this morning Mario Murillo wrote, “Easter is not polite. It is fire! It is not about bunnies or eggs, and it has no place among the other harmless religious holidays.”

The resurrection separates Easter from other religious holidays. That resurrection is the assurance of the coming judgement.

διοτι εστησεν ημεραν εν η μελλει κρινειν την οικουμενην εν δικαιοσυνη εν ανδρι ω ωρισεν πιστιν παρασχων πασιν αναστησας αυτον εκ νεκρων
Acts 17:31 Textus Receptus with various translations

Geri Ungurean linked to this song in a recent post.

An Easter Hallelujah

Reminder: There is more going on with the Resurrection of Jesus than New Age sentiment about the rising sun

Gear – Six Sentence Story

Some agents went with Timothy to the east parking area near the second tunnel after getting Helen’s dispatch where they found a suspicious fifteen foot van and arrested the driver upon hearing screams from the back. Other fully armed agents stood ready anticipating hostile response. When the shootout started Timothy dropped behind a car with the child he was moving from the van shielding her with his body and the protective gear he wore.

A few days later Timothy saw that child reunited with her parents at the hospital. She pointed him out and her family approached. In broken English they thanked him and the child’s mother sealed it with an uncontrolled flow of tears, holy water: God be praised.

Denise offers the prompt word “gear” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories. This continues from Service – Six Sentence Story. Next: Home – Six Sentence Story

Sunday Walk 34 – Easter Coming Soon

ει τα επιγεια ειπον υμιν και ου πιστευετε πως εαν ειπω υμιν τα επουρανια πιστευσετε
John 3:12 Textus Receptus with various translations

Jason Lisle is an astronomer who argues for biblical creationism and a young earth. I think he’s right. However, I suspect many Christians would not agree. They accept the deep time of evolution perhaps because they’ve been taught that’s just the way things are. To keep religion relevant, they add onto this a God who guides the mythical process of evolution. I know some Christians believe this kind of theistic evolution, because I’ve been there, done that and wish now I hadn’t.

The problem with theistic evolution is that no connection exists between that guiding God and Elohim (Yahweh) after theistic evolution trashes Genesis 1-11. If one doesn’t accept Genesis as an historical document, how can one make sense out of Easter except as one more myth? Don’t forget what’s at stake: 1 Corinthians 15:14.

There is plenty of scientific justification for a biblical young earth. Indeed, what is lacking is scientific evidence for the belief that deep time could ever be deep enough to make evolution work or that a big bang could randomly pop any ordered reality, let alone an orderly universe, out of a disordered quantum vacuum no matter how often it tries.

Here are a few sites I have found useful should you wish to explore this.

And here are some specific sources.

Walt Brown provides a survey of arguments for creationism along with his hydroplate theory of what happened during the flood in his book, In the Beginning.
The Young Earth Creation channel hosts a graphic presentation of the flood events based on the fossil record found in wide ranging sedimentation layers.
John Hartnett describes the Anisotropic Synchrony Convention that Jason Lisle uses to solve the starlight travel time problem which answers the question how light from stars billions of light years away could reach the earth instantly on the fourth day of creation.

Easter is upon us. Many proclaim the resurrection of Jesus as historical fact. That’s the core of what matters.

Asserting the resurrection of Jesus as historical fact takes me back to creation as presented in Genesis also as historical fact. If it is weren’t for Adam and Eve there would be no need for the death and resurrection of Jesus. From that beginning I go to the end times that prophecies assert will also be, some day, historical fact.

Here is a song I found on The Marshall Report appropriate for those last days which may be coming soon.

Paul Wilbur, Days of Elijah

Service – Six Sentence Story

As Rafael finished texting Bill the message “pedophile traffic second tunnel east” that kept flashing in his mind, his daughter, Celia, arrived, sat down at the outdoor café table, and, as he expected she would, began berating him. Listening to her reminded him of the disrespectful way he treated his own father decades ago and given that experience he knew there would be no service he could perform to make things right with her. Suddenly Celia rose to leave and hissed, “Who do you think you are anyway?”

Sensing this as his last opportunity, Rafael quickly said when she rushed off, “Don’t trust that guy you’re with.”

When Celia reached her apartment she remained outside pacing the sidewalk trying to imagine which deceiving friend betrayed her by telling her dad about Derek, how it was done, and how she would get even. Rafael slowly sipped his coffee hoping she might return, wondering if it would be a good idea to try to meet her again, and then stood up, put his empty cup in the dirty dish container, and left.

Denise offers the prompt word “service” for this week’s Six Sentence Stories. Continued from Filter – Six Sentence Story. Next: Walk – Six Sentence Story or Gear – Six Sentence Story.

Sunday Walk 33

I first heard this song a few days ago when Mark Shields linked it in his post The Unseen is Eternal.

George Strait, I Saw God Today

και ελεγον προς εαυτας τις αποκυλισει ημιν τον λιθον εκ της θυρας του μνημειου
Mark 16:3 Textus Receptus with various translations

Update on learning Hebrew: I have found the Alef with Bet channel very helpful. The audio lessons are at the beginner level. Beth clearly enunciates the words and there is a helpful transcript of the video.

Filter – Six Sentence Story

The email filter kept Rafael’s messages, rare though they be from this bouncer and saint, assuming proper discernment, at the top of Bill’s inbox until read. What Rafael sent today was “pedophile traffic second tunnel east” which was all Helen needed to dispatch agents.

Helen never met Rafael, but Bill often did when passing the revival tent where Rafael worked the streets explaining once to Rafael that he was suffering from the lingering side-effects of a flu. Hearing this as a call for help rather than a lame excuse not to go into the tent, Rafael gripped Bill’s shoulder with a hand that could have dropped a terrorist praying that, through Jesus, “this illness leave my brother”.

That was twenty years ago. Bill had since relocated, but Rafael kept in contact through messages uncanny in their accuracy, and that pesky flu didn’t dare return.

Denise offers the prompt word “filter” for this week’s Six Sentence Stories. This story continues from Journey – Six Sentence Story. Next: Service – Six Sentence Story. Or perhaps Effervescent – Six Sentence Story.

If you want to know more about revival tent meetings, well, I’ve never been to one, but I just read Mario Murillo’s post Why Modesto is going to be so different. My thoughts for revival take off from there.

Sunday Walk 32

I found this song on Dianne Marshall’s blog The Marshall Report. It makes me think of being born again in expectation of the end times.

JT Marshall, Glory’s Gate, I’m on Fire

I have been watching videos to better understand the Epistle of Jude. I wanted to know who those false teachers were that Jude warned the believers about and what was their message. While reading through John Gideon Hartnett’s post Bridge to Babylon and following his links things started to make sense even though Hartnett did not mention Jude at all.

Here is the bottom line as I currently see it. The false teachers used gnostic philosophy to discredit Jesus as our Lord and that conceptual error led to moral depravity.

There’s got to be more to it than that, but that’s how I see it at the moment.

η γαρ αποκαραδοκια της κτισεως την αποκαλυψιν των υιων του θεου απεκδεχεται
Romans 8:19 Textus Receptus with various translations

Extraordinary

Does an extraordinary claim require extraordinary evidence? If one thinks of ordinary as natural, something one can see, touch or measure, and one thinks of extra as super, then it might make sense to transform extraordinary into supernatural just to help us see what’s at stake. From that new perspective, a supernatural claim would seem to require supernatural evidence.

True, some proudly deny the supernatural entirely. They might as well deny the extraordinary itself, but such a denial would itself be an extraordinary claim requiring extraordinary or supernatural evidence to justify it.

Pause for a moment.

Without the supernatural there would be no words to describe the ordinary if the ordinary could exist at all. That we take words for granted does not mean they are ordinary or can be completely reduced to something natural. We are just used to the extraordinary, the supernatural, pervading our lives in spite of our denials.

Furthermore, we use these words that are extraordinary to form presuppositions, or believed assumptions that cannot be reduced to the ordinary, in order to rationalize those very denials.

Those presuppositions are part of our spiritual environment. Can we change our minds? From this environment do we produce wholesome fruit worth offering to our loved ones? Can we repent if that fruit is rotten? Can we be forgiven?

We sink into the waters aware of those presuppositions, those mundane, questionable, unwholesome, but extraordinary claims. As we are brought back up, having repented, having changed our minds, the Lord renews in us a right spirit and creates in us a clean heart.

Now that’s extraordinary.

My thoughts expressed here were motivated from reading Michael Wilson’s post Do Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence? which led me to Frank Turek’s podcast. When Eugenia offered the word “extraordinary” for this week’s prompt I figured the coincidence was significant.

לב טהור ברא לי אלהים ורוח נכון חדשׁ בקרבי
Psalm 51:10 Masoretic Text with various translations

Journey – Six Sentence Story

As expected the corrupt judge released the assassins back onto the streets. Their attorney filed a complaint against the officers who made the arrests, but no one at the station knew who those officers were. Not even the medics in the ambulance who received the assassins with all the paperwork neatly printed out could identify them.

Since the surgeon who removed the bullets from their arms didn’t notice the tracking devices that the shots were intended to deliver, once the assassins were released Helen began logging their journey.

Pointing to her monitor, Helen said, “The way these guys wander about the city I wonder if they took the blue pill or the red pill.”

“They’re dumb enough to take both.”

Denise offers the prompt word “journey” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Story. This is a continuation from Theory – Six Sentence Story. The next part is Filter – Six Sentence Story.