We ask and yet we don’t receive.
Let’s drop some plans. Let others wait.
I wonder: Were the corners straight?
What wayward missteps did we weave?
I won’t let fear take root to grieve.
Dreams are cooking? Let them simmer.
Dusk is growing. Light gets dimmer.
Take time to find the righteous way
avoiding what led us astray.
Morning sunlight soon will shimmer.
Ronovan Hester challenges us to write a décima with the rhyme word “shimmer” in a C line with a rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC.
Timothy saw a spider rest at the center of its web. What a marvel of patience!
Looking through his binoculars he noticed smiles on the faces of the agents as they left his abandoned apartment. He heard in his earpiece, “The white hats have the laptop”, but he suspected it could be mere psyops.
Regardless all he needed to do was wait. Either they wandered into the web or they didn’t.
Denise offers the prompt word “marvel” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Story. This story continues from Filter – Six Sentence Story. The next chapter is Ocean – Six Sentence Story.
Up in the trees I see blue skies.
They’re sometimes cloudy, full of birds.
A storm approaches. With fresh eyes
come see beyond dark lying words.
Dale challenges us with the theme “in the trees” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.
I am grateful to P. A. Oltrogge for bringing Psalm 27 to my attention this past week. Here is the concluding verse about waiting and courage:
Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.
Psalm 27:14 King James Version
I found Michael Wilson’s post on the use of the Greek word for slave, δοῦλος, helpful. He noted that the word is often translated as servant although it means slave. The distinction is that a servant is hired but a slave is owned. When I think about it I’d rather be owned by Jesus than hired by him for my good works. I am grateful that He bought me.
Timothy realized that his most trusted operatives were deceiving him. Did the white hats secure that missing laptop after the blackout? Could he cross the border or would they be waiting for him?
It’s not easy to filter truth from disinformation. Too many were going out of their way to advise him that he was not the target.
He knew better.
Denise offers the word “filter” for this week’s Six Sentence Story. This story continues from Zip – Six Sentence Story. The next chapter is Marvel – Six Sentence Story.
So whom do you rely upon?
You’re at the Red Sea. Where’s the boat?
How long in water can you float?
That’s when a way was made. At dawn
the charging enemy was gone
except for corpses flushed to shore.
You still have doubts? You’d like one more
experiment to test what’s true?
You see the dead? They’d like that, too,
but they have lost their strength for war.
Ronovan Hester offers the rhyme word “float” to be used in a B line of a décima having rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC for this week’s Décima Poetry Challenge.
See Exodus 14 for an account of the crossing of the Red Sea.
Dale offers the challenge “shades of gray” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge. Above are gray clouds coming in during sunset. Below is a leaf on a gray sidewalk.
The first blog I read this morning was Dianne Marshall’s The Marshall Report. It contained links to two videos, both of which I enjoyed.
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.
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.
Repentance cringes at the past
since God detests the rot of it
that reeks of death. The blot of it
warns us beware of each contrast.
We’re thankful though that didn’t last.
We saw in time our wretched ways.
Where would we be if all our days
continued on mechanically
when seeing meant we didn’t see?
Such gratitude’s the source of praise.
Ronovan Hester offers the challenge of using the rhyme word “contrast” in the A line of a décima where the rhyme pattern is ABBAACCDDC.
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 