Prose – Page 42 – Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

Alternative – Six Sentence Story

Brian was self-reliant enough to do whatever was good in his own eyes. Eventually he’d have to repent of much of this goodness, but right now the mountain he expected would hold the weight of his imaginings began sliding due to an avalanche of truth.

Down he went clutching onto one esoteric branch of conjectures after the other discovering that every alternative he grabbed onto failed to stop his fall. He could see the smiling mouth of nihilism lick its lips and open its jaws below him.

It was as he absent-mindedly looked into this dread that he was hit by a bus and rushed to an emergency room where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Whether the expert opinion was wrong or whether hell didn’t want him, Brian’s heart began beating with no desire to climb fantasy mountain again.

Denise offers the word “alternative” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories. This story continues with Bowl – Six Sentence Story.

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

Sunday Walk 47

Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.
Mark 16:9 King James Bible 1769

I found the following oratorio by Kathie Lee Gifford and Nicole C. Mullen on the The Marshall Report. It is about Hagar, Ruth, and David and then wondrously about Mary Magdalene (John 20:1-18). They all experienced crises. God saw them and answered them. He sees us as well.

Kathie Lee Gifford & Nicole C. Mullen, The God Who Sees

Weekly Bible Reading: Leviticus (Audio: King James Version read by Alexander Scourby) Numbers (Audio: King James Version read by Alexander Scourby)
Commentary: David Pawson, Leviticus, Part 2 of 2, Numbers, Part 1 of 2, Unlocking the Bible

Sunday Walk 46 – Salt and Light

I am grateful to Cassa Bassa for a reference to a lecture by David Pawson on salt and light as mentioned in Matthew 5:13-16. I found a version of it which I am linking below.

As Pawson says, we live in “a world of dirt and disease and darkness” without salt and without light (about 21:20).

We are the salt that fertilizes the dirt. We are the salt that prevents disease from spreading. We are the light showing the way through the darkness. We are the light pointing out the ways of the world to avoid.

If the salt becomes contaminated with the ways of the world, of what use is it? If the lamp refuses to shine for those who have lost their way, why light it?

Weekly Bible Reading: Exodus (Audio: King James Version read by Alexander Scourby) Leviticus (Audio: King James Version read by Alexander Scourby)
Commentary: David Pawson, Exodus, Part 2 of 2, Leviticus, Part 1 of 2, Unlocking the Bible

Remnant – Six Sentence Story

The door of the boat was shut from the outside.

The fountains of the deep opened and the rains began. The earth quaked sending tsunamis over the land in wave after devastating wave burying living creatures successively in higher and higher mucky graves. In a few months there was no place to hide as the entire surface of the earth became a sea. When the waters retreated dry land emerged, eroded and tortured, above the waters.

The remnant left the boat.

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

For details related to my story see Genesis 6-9. Dr. Georgia Purdom provides even more details.

Sunday Walk 45 – Satan

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Ephesians 6:11, King James Bible 1769

In the past when I wanted to see the hidden world of devils or Satan I would read M. Scott Peck’s 1998 book People of the Lie. Peck attempted to develop a psychology of evil which led him into exorcisms with the help of Malachi Martin. See Martin’s 1976 book Hostage to the Devil. There were also C.S. Lewis’s accounts of Screwtape and Wormwood in The Screwtape Letters and the possessed shadows of hell in The Great Divorce who thought everyone else was the problem. However, much of this seemed remote from my normal reality.

Today, given the social context of fake news, fake science, fake elections, psyops and bioweapons, someone seems to have let Satan out of his cage if he ever was caged at all. Here are a few recent items I’ve come across.

Mario Murillo notes that just dabbling in the occult, even as a game, can leave one open to demonic influence unlike the conscious surrender required to receive the Holy Spirit. While I’ve heard this before, the urgency today seems new.
Geri Ungurean takes a look at Greek mythology as real and possibly satanic in a recent post.
John Gideon Hartnett provides a link to Altiyan Childs’ experiences with freemasonry. Childs’ video is over five hours long, but you’ll find there many examples of the covered eye, the hidden hand, the 666 finger sign and other symbolic communications I didn’t know existed before.
I found on Dianne Marshall’s blog Trey Smith’s video (linked below) which provides an overview of ancient history as it relates to Satan.

Although I’ve always thought Satan and his devils were real and needed to be avoided, at least as an intellectual exercise, today I wish I knew better how to put on the armor of God in Ephesians 6. Today I see why Jesus told us (Matthew 6:5-13) to pray to be delivered from the evil one.

Weekly Bible Reading: Genesis (Audio: King James Version read by Alexander Scourby) and Exodus (Audio: King James Version read by Alexander Scourby)
Commentary: David Pawson, Genesis Part 7 of 7 and Exodus Part 1 of 2, Unlocking the Bible

Quarter – Six Sentence Story

With less than a quarter of his pieces remaining and seemingly desperate John moved his queen to a square adjacent to Tom’s king tempting Tom to capture her.

“Although I could win this game right now,” Tom announced as he took the bait removing John’s queen from the board and giving the plastic piece a messy kiss, “I’ll take your queen, you senile fool, just like I took that Miriam of yours long ago.”

After Tom’s capture of John’s queen, John moved a pawn to Tom’s edge of the board with a diagonally unobstructed view aimed right at Tom’s newly exposed king and with the right to exchange that pawn for any piece he wanted. John replaced the pawn with a diagonally powerful bishop as nursing home aides entered to wheel them back to their respective rooms.

“Why didn’t you get another queen, idiot?”

“I had one, Tom, until you took her away, but I only needed a bishop to checkmate you.”

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

Sunday Walk 44 – Bible Reading

Jim Lee asked his readers when during the day we read the Bible? I could say I was following a yearly Bible reading plan with a small group and read the verses of the day when the notice arrived.

However, I thought why not start my own plan in addition to this focusing on each book in succession with a commentary as a guide?

I started this two weeks ago using David Pawson’s one hundred lecture series Unlocking the Bible. This commentary covers the whole Bible at an introductory level. I divided those one hundred lectures into two videos per week to make the plan last about a year.

This week I am continuing with Genesis. On each of these Sunday Walks I will link to an audio of the book I’m reading along with links to two of Pawson’s lectures.

Weekly Bible Reading: Genesis (Audio: King James Version read by Alexander Scourby)
Commentary: David Pawson, Genesis Part 5 of 7 and Part 6 of 7, Unlocking the Bible

Presence – Six Sentence Story

After worrying whether he should or not, Tom called his father telling him that he saw the ghostlike presence of Aunt Janet after his classes that afternoon.

“She said she was sorry, but she didn’t say what for,” Tom added.

“What did you say?”

“I told her it was OK and then she vanished.”

Tom didn’t believe in ghosts, nor did his father, but he felt obligated to pass on this message not understanding what actually alienated his father from Aunt Janet over a decade ago. He was relieved when he heard his father say, “I’m glad you told her that.”

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

Sunday Walk 43 – Fruits of the Spirit

ο δε καρπος του πνευματος εστιν αγαπη χαρα ειρηνη μακροθυμια χρηστοτης αγαθωσυνη πιστις
πραοτης εγκρατεια κατα των τοιουτων ουκ εστιν νομος
Galatians 5:22 and 23 with various translations

It is not merely that I can know them by the way they express, or don’t, the fruits of the Holy Spirit, but I can know myself by the way I express those fruits as well.

These fruits do not come from consuming therapies, taking drugs or following self-help programs to not behave badly. They are not my fruits, but the fruits of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit.

There is nothing easier than expressing them in stillness. There is nothing harder than giving up the addiction to my own spoiled fruits since faithlessness suggests that’s all there is.

For more on this, see The Brew Is A Musing’s Spirit-Led Lifestyle.

Keith and Kristyn Getty – Still, My Soul Be Still

Weekly Bible Readings: Genesis (Audio: King James Version read by Alexander Scourby)
Commentary: David Pawson, Genesis Part 3 of 7 and Part 4 of 7, Unlocking the Bible

Powerful – Six Sentence Story

Saul consented to the stoning of Stephen outside of Jerusalem. Little did he realize that years later he himself would be stoned in Lystra, stoned to death so his enemies thought. And perhaps it was to death, but after being dragged out of town and left for dead by men who supposedly knew what they were doing, he would stand up.

On his way to Damascus, Saul once again was up to no good. This time the Lord Himself knocked him down, or rather, he fell down unaccustomed to the blinding light. When his blindness left, so too did his powerful delusion.

Denise offers the prompt word “powerful” for this week’s Six Sentence Stories. The story is a recounting of some events from Acts 6-9,14.