The present is an open blessing
the Lord has given while caressing
us with joy. We come now pressing
in with songs of praise.
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Ronovan Hester offers the inspiration “open” for this week’s Ovi Poetry Challenge. Also posted on Poet’s Corner.
Brian built a following by blending doom and gloom prophecies with prayer that the prophecies would not come true.
If a prophecy occurred, he took credit for being a pretty good prophet. If it didn’t, he declared that his prayers had enough pull with the Lord for them to work.
When Brian’s critics pointed out that being right on one leg of a hedged bet implied he would have to be wrong on the other, he ridiculed them. He reminded them that the Lord Himself was telling him what to do.
The Lord could not recall telling Brian anything.
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Denise offers the prompt word “blend” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
Matthew 6:5 KJV – And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
Dale offers the prompt “from underneath” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.
Below is a picture of our front door from two years ago.
We planted a colorful plant on a trellis that year. That’s the plant you see blocking the view of the door, but there is plenty of room to get by it.
The second year we moved the plant to the other side of the door and put a storm door on it as well.
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Posted as part of Thursday Doors.
I cannot lift myself as high
as when my Father to the sky
would lift me up. I wonder why
I haven’t praised Him more.
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Ronovan Hester offers the inspiration “life” for this week’s Ovi Poetry Challenge. Also posted on Poet’s Corner.
With ancient soundtracks playing in the background that synched with the mantras running from his mouth, the wizard gazed for spiritual insight into a large, shallow pool of water reflecting his image.
A voice said, What are you looking at, George?
Not used to hearing voices interfere with his imagination George asked, “What?”
You won’t find your way back on your own.
“That garden never existed,” he countered.
By the way, I didn’t make you in My image from stardust, but from the dust of the earth.
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Denise offers the prompt word “pool” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
[Chorus]
We are stardust, we are golden
We are billion-year-old carbon
And we got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young cover of Joni Mitchell’s song Woodstock
Matthew 7:13-14 KJV – 13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Dale offers the prompt “close up” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.
I found the following video on Robert Carter’s site Biblical Genetics. The key take-away from this video is that the ultimate benefit of all of the genealogical data in the Bible was to trace the ancestry of Jesus back to Adam.
Most people (including myself) skip over the biblical genealogies unless they know what to look for. Carter says it is like looking for a fossil in a river basin. If you know what to look for you can find an amazing fossil. If you don’t, well, there are plenty of other things to enjoy.
Robert Carter and Chris Hardy were the authors of a paper on Creation Ministries International that I keep going back to called The biblical minimum and maximum age of the earth. The creation year of the minimum age supported by at least one biblical manuscript tradition is 3822 BC. The creation year of the maximum age is 5665 BC. That’s a difference of 1,843 years.
Many Christians support the younger age close to James Ussher’s chronology with a creation date of 4004 BC. Since that was a bit over 6000 years ago many of them also get tempted by speculations of the end of the age.
Early Christians along with Henry B. Smith, Jr at the Associates for Biblical Research support an older creation year of around 5500 BC. Based on this chronology the rabbinic tradition of the Messiah coming during the 6th millennium has already been fulfilled by Jesus. Smith, Jr’s argument in favor of the older age is available at the 2018 International Conference on Creationism called The case for the Septuagint’s chronology in Genesis 5 and 11. It’s another one of the papers I keep going back to.
At the moment, I favor Smith, Jr’s view, but I am a recent supporter of creationism. I am still learning. I only began taking the Bible seriously, that is, more seriously than, say, the Bhagavad Gita, about five years ago.
Over five years ago, I would have thought the earth was a gazillion years old. Why? Because that’s what I was told. My religious traditions were a mix of Catholic Teilhard de Chardin new age leaning mysticism and Protestant William Lane Craig atheist leaning rationalizations. Don’t worry if you aren’t familiar with those two names. I wish I weren’t as well.
When I was about 10 years old I remember telling my aunt that chickens came from dinosaurs. Why? Because that’s what I was told. Looking back on that incident as an adult who has now listened to many children talk I imagine she thought I was a cute kid, but stupid.
I realize today that she was right about the stupid part. Or, better put, deceived part, but then those telling me the “truth” were deceived as well. They are not the enemy. I forgive them. Today I have more important things to do like taking back all that stolen life, stolen hope, stolen joy and stolen peace.
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 