Prose – Page 43 – Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

Sunday Walk 23

David Pawson claimed (Book of Revelation, Part 1, about 8:30) that there are two books of the Bible that Satan particularly doesn’t like: Genesis and Revelation. In Genesis Satan’s deceptive practices are exposed. In Revelation his downfall is prophesied – Jesus wins; Satan loses. In particular the first few chapters of Genesis and the last ones of Revelation cause Satan the most grief.

Pawson also suggested that we read Scripture aloud. I have noticed that when I hear myself reading something aloud, it becomes clearer. At the very least reading something aloud makes it difficult for me to skim over the words. I don’t want to skim over those parts of Genesis and Revelation that annoy Satan the most.

Zip – Six Sentence Story

Bill said that he’d be “back with the zip file”, but that was last Saturday. Timothy searched online, but Bill disappeared from there as well. All Bill’s posts vanished. Even records of the events they attended together vanished.

By the time Timothy figured out what was going on it must have been too late.

The only thing that remained was the word “sorry” gouged with large, rough letters into the plaster of his apartment wall that the maintenance staff seemed anxious to cover up as we entered the room pretending to look for a place to rent.

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

If the story doesn’t make sense, think dystopian future (or present). If that doesn’t help, be grateful that it was short.

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

Sunday Walk 22

Last week following David Pawson’s Practicing the Principles of Prayer when I felt an emotional alarm go off I prayed for guidance. The emotion seemed rationally justified, but was it really?

Then I opened a post by Michael Wilson. Preoccupied by the emotion I wasn’t paying attention to his words until I saw the following quote which I couldn’t ignore:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23 King James Version

My prayer was answered. The emotion vanished as a false alarm.

There are some who would be eager to explain prayer away or, barring that, smother it in New Age sentimentality. I’ve been deceived by both in the past. I wonder how much power they still have over me.

Distance – Six Sentence Story

Pete loved giving advice, such as, “After you’ve gone the distance you’ll be surprised at what you’ll find.”

Greg asked him, “Is there something I should worry about once I get there?”

Pete smiled making Greg wonder whether Pete thought he knew something or whether he wanted to tick Greg off like Greg wanted to do to him.

“There’s nothing to worry about should you get there,” Pete clarified.

Greg snorted a forced laugh.

“However, you won’t get there without help and you won’t want that to happen once you’ve realized what you’ve missed.”

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

Last Week’s Christmas Walk

Dale asks us to “show us your Christmas” for the Cosmic Photo Challenge. On my walk on Christmas day I spotted these flowers among others.

My smile this week for Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile is much the same as it has been. In particular I was wondering if I would find anything to photograph on December 25th worth posting to meet Dale’s challenge. Sometimes I’m too distracted. There are times I am so preoccupied I forget to take photos. I smiled with relief when I spotted these flowers. I don’t know why I saw them. I must have missed them on previous walks. Perhaps they weren’t blooming then.

Merry Christmas

Confucius is dead. Mohammad is dead. Shinto is dead. Buddha is dead, but Jesus is alive and therefore I can believe IN Jesus. I can’t believe in the others. They are all gone.
David Pawson, The Key Steps to Becoming a Christian, Part 3 (about 18:45)

I love the traditional celebration of Christmas on December 25th especially as Mario Murillo presented it yesterday in his post. However, placing the actual birth of Jesus at the beginning of the Jewish calendar, that is, on Nisan 1, opens up, for me, an unexpected fulfillment of prophecy.

Jonathan Cahn, a Messianic Christian pastor, made the case that Jesus was born on March 20, 6 BC. If you watch the 28 minute video, When Was Jesus REALLY Born??, (Jim Bakker Show November 12th, 2012), look for the following:
1) In the spring lambing season the shepherds would be in the fields at night attending the birth of the lambs.
2) These lambs from Bethlehem were the temple sacrificial lambs. By pointing out the sign of “a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12 NIV), the angel was telling the shepherds to also attend the birth of Jesus.
3) Central events in the life of Jesus occurred on Jewish holy days: the Lamb Selection Day (Palm Sunday), Passover (Crucifixion), the Feast of First Fruits (Resurrection), and Shavuot (Pentecost). If His birth were a similarly central event it would likely occur on Nisan 1, the beginning of the Jewish calendar.
4) The birth year of 6 BC is suggested by an unusual occultation of Jupiter by the Moon in the constellation Aries that the Magi, or Zoroastrian astrologers, would have noticed in the spring. This would point them to the birth (occultation) of a king (Jupiter) in Judea (Aries).
5) The Tabernacle took nine months to complete like the period from conception to birth of a baby. It was set up on Nisan 1, “on the first day of the first month” (Exodus 40:2 NIV).

As Jonathan Cahn mentioned at the end of the video every time we receive Jesus it is day one, a new beginning. That would include today, December 25th, as well. And so I wish you a Merry Christmas and a new beginning.

Events

The winter solstice doesn’t bother us.
It happens this time every year.
It comes and goes. A few might care to know,
But no one feels any fear.

A birth we celebrate about this time
That happened once in ancient days
Still moves the heart with joyful gratitude.
We rise with shepherds singing praise.

Cream of the Crop

This week for the Cosmic Photo Challenge Dale asks us to feature our favorite photos of the past year under the theme of “cream of the crop”. Above is a fall view of Lake Michigan from the top of the ravine at Lake Bluff, Illinois, and the other shows a cup of goji berry tea next to my prepared notes for a meeting.

What made me smile this past week (for Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile) was a realization of the significance of various personal events over the past year, some very small, which made possible other such events. By contrast many public events of 2020 were awful, but these more private ones I think of now as Red Sea moments (Exodus 14) where I had to go from one side to the other of some situation with a command to do so, or else. When I imagine what my life would have been like today if I had not obeyed these commands I am overwhelmed with joyful gratitude.

I doubt the Israelites felt comfortable crossing the Red Sea given those ominous mountains of water on both sides, but if they had not obeyed, they would have had to face the Egyptians behind them. Imagine their gratitude at the privilege of being guided from one shore to the other.

The realization that made me smile this past week was the sense that I was not alone and I might well have become lost if I didn’t go forward. There are those who might choose to explain such commands or guidance as the workings of my imagination. However, there is a difference between imagining how the Israelites must have felt to experiencing it oneself. Remembrance brings forth gratitude and gratitude put a joyful smile on my face.

Merry Christmas!

I am adding this post to Crystal Grimes Holiday Blogging Party.

Scarecrow – Friday Fictioneers

Gerald made crosses and dressed them in tarp and rags to look like people blocking the way. He didn’t want anyone to get hurt while he was laying the drain pipes.

He considered using warning cones rather than those scarecrows, or scare-people, but how boring would that have been? Besides Gerald wanted to make them like he wanted to drain that seasonal wetland. In a week he was done.

Rather than keep them away the scare-people attracted his neighbors. They gave Gerald ideas for other scare-critters and new opportunities to use them.

Linked to Friday Fictioneers where Rochelle Wisoff-Fields offers the photo above by Sandra Crook as the prompt.

Change – Six Sentence Story

As Greg approached the store a woman sitting by the streetlight asked him for a dollar and he gave her one.

Inside the store Greg bought a single Christmas card for Bill who called him the day before from a distant part of the country complaining that no one wanted anything to do with him anymore. Greg knew long ago that the toxicity of alcohol had been triggering Bill’s eruptions of deluded omnipotence and he was even beginning to become aware of the devious sources manipulating his own personality. Without any expectation that what he was about to do would do any good Greg picked a card that expressed a humble message of joy and he decided to call Bill back on Christmas Eve to see how he was doing.

After paying for the card Greg saw a dollar bill in the change he received and gave it to the woman on the sidewalk. She tucked this additional treasure away with the others.

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

Crystal Grimes is hosting a Holiday Blogging Party to which I am linking this post.

Snappers’ Choice

When Alice saw the rabbit hole,
she wondered: “Do I dare to go?”
She went. Praise God. Raise gratitude.
She found her winding way back home.

Linked to Cosmic Photo Challenge where Dale offers the theme of “snappers’ choice”, or photos of my own choosing. These are pictures taken about a week ago near the beach.

Also linked to Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile. I was thinking this past week of Matthew 6:13, And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. (NIV)

I smiled when I thought the temptation from the evil one might be for me to get my own way (or its way) when instead I should be rejecting it. When I do get my own way, that is, when my own will was done, I wondered if that were also His will for me? And that made me suspicious of the lyrics in the song, I Did It My Way.

Ahh! Going down that rabbit hole made me smile all the more with gratitude as things started to make sense from that context. Now to find my way back home.