When rain returns the barren land Is filled with blooms we all can see, A resurrection mystery, A pouring that we understand As blessings from an open hand. A year ago we doubted. Look! There’s water flowing in the brook. Those ways we’ve turned from have somehow Been transformed into nothing now Like drivel from an unread book.
Linked to Ronovan Writes Décima Poetry Challenge where the challenge is to use the word “look” as the C rhyme in a poem with rhyme scheme ABBAACCDDC.
“We engage them with intimidation and bait them with lies to trip them up and trap them in emotional and costly accusations.”
“That sounds, however, like something they could avoid.”
“Some of them can, but we have successfully undermined – made elastic – the ethical foundations of others so much so that we are able to keep a significant part of their population fearful and gullible about anything their media gives us the opportunities to tell them.”
“What backup is there if this doesn’t work?”
“As backup we have compromised key politicians, officials and professional leadership who can be blackmailed if need be to act in our interests and we’ve manipulated their radicalized stooges to foment social unrest – and, don’t forget, our scientists have now proven that they can engineer targeted and deadly viruses.”
“So, if what you’re telling me is true, as long as they keep shooting themselves in the foot, we have a chance to get our hands around their throats.”
Linked to Six Sentence Story where Denise offers the prompt word “elastic” which must appear somewhere in a story of only six sentences.
Celebrity is a line of credit to be exhausted in the act of telling the truth.
Mario Murillo, interviewed August 19th, 2020, at Encounter Today (about 34:00).
Linked to Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday.
An ordinary, tiny bug Lived on a painted wall. Before he died He tried and tried To understand it all.
Linked to Cosmic Photo Challenge where Dale offers the theme of turning “the everyday into the unusual”. The photos are of graffiti on top of graffiti but viewed up-close. Although the messages were somewhat confusing even at normal distance the paint made the bridge over the brook in the forest preserve colorful.
Also linked to Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile. I realized I made a mistake in my algorithm to verify the records in the 3x+1 problem and fixed it. My best time with the incorrect code was 352 seconds as I reported last week. My best time with the new code was 354 seconds. Although I haven’t repeated the runs to find the variance in these timings, I was relieved that the correction did not seem to significantly harm the performance. That was enough to make me smile even though I am still a long way from my 10-second goal.
17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; 18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. 19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. 20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: 21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. 22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. 23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again. 24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
Romans 11:17-24 King James Version
The Feast of Trumpets began last Friday. Below is Jonathan Cahn, a Messianic Jewish pastor, explaining the significance of the feast especially for today and blowing the trumpets.
I am grateful to Sammi Cox for publishing this story in Whispers and Echoes. Here is the submissions page in case you would also like to contribute to the journal.
“There isn’t much we mice can do.”
“Let alone one mouse”.
“What has a lion ever done for us? He’s probably trapped for a good reason.”
And so they tried to discourage Tamar from helping the lion escape from the ropes binding him.
“If you’re going to help him, don’t lecture him about his diet.”
“He might eat you.”
“Or smash you.”
Tamar recognized him. He’s the one who let her go. A quiet voice told her to gnaw the rope and then get out of the way.
So she did and when she did the other mice helped.
Linked to Carrot Ranch’s September 17th Flash Fiction Challenge where Charli Mills offers the theme of mice. This is a retelling of Aesop’s Fable of the Lion and the Mouse.
Dark witches of the winter know Some spells they heard in full-moon fall. Their Ba’al doesn't know it all. His shadows flicker where they go When morning light lets failings show. Those who wake in time may see How ignorance loves mystery, How feelings masquerade as good, How petty sins start ticking. Could They all explode mechanically?
Linked to Ronovan Writes Décima Poetry Challenge where the challenge is to use “fall” as a rhyme word in the B lines where the rhyme pattern is ABBAACCDDC. The photos are from around October/November of last year.
George and his wife escaped from their burning apartment. Local politicians, some of whom he voted for, and reporters, labeled the rioting a peaceful protest, but he couldn’t see anything peaceful about the looting of his small store while the police were told to stand down. It would take years for them to recover from this toxic self-righteousness.
Standing apart from the rioters in an alley George tried to identify the mistakes they made that led to their decision to settle in this city three decades ago. He couldn’t think of anything fundamentally wrong with their decisions. He might still be wondering how they could have done things differently were it not for a large kettle containing fluids that exploded, scalding him and his wife, bringing them to their knees and then laying them on the ground.
Linked to Six Sentence Stories where Denise offers the word “kettle” to use in a story having six sentences.
Whenever people sin it empowers the devil.
Peter Warren, Sermon on September 13th at Calvary Chapel Miami Beach, author of “When the Shooting Stops: Where is God When We Suffer?“
Linked to Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday.
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 