Mine—Ovi Poetry Challenge

Repent, rejoice, revive, arise.
May love flow kindly from my eyes.
May tears turn into joyful cries
and with that joy new life.

Repent, rejoice, revive, arise.
The spirit lives and never dies.
The way’s the wonder of the wise
for they have hungered for it.

Repent, rejoice, revive, arise.
My hope* is Jesus crucified—
AND RESURRECTED. No more lies.
Through Him death was defeated.

______

Ronovan Hester offers the word of inspiration “mine” for this week’s Ovi Poetry Challenge. A slightly modified version is on Poet’s Corner.

*Our hope, as well

Our front door

It All Goes Back To Genesis 3

Genesis 3:1-5 (KJV)
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

What would be the benefits as promised by the deceiving serpent of eating that fruit?

  1. Your eyes shall be opened. You would become woke.
  2. You shall be as gods. You, not God, would become the standard.
  3. You will know good and evil. You, not God, would become the judge of others.

That is, all hell would break loose.

______

For more details see Peter Wyns, Deceiving Spirits.

Vision—Six Sentence Story

Ryan paced the floor complaining about Timothy whom he paraded for judgement through his mind. His indignation was so rationally air-tight that he built a dam of condemnation out of it.

Then a miracle happened. Ryan had a vision of how much the Lord loved Timothy in spite of every accusation Ryan could concoct against him.

When Ryan’s own repentance breached the dam, he didn’t know what overcame him. His heart was flooded with joy.

______

Denise offers the prompt word “vision” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Art For Art’s Sake

Dale offers the prompt “art for art’s sake” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge.

Below are photos of Spanish moss. It hangs from trees in the southeastern part of the United States. I think of it as a swirling bunch mindless modern (or pretentious postmodern) art as an excuse to use it for this prompt.

We were in Tampa, Florida, recently. The place where we stayed had many trees with this growing on them.

Spanish Moss
More Spanish Moss
I don’t know where that leaf came from, but there is Spanish moss behind it

Revival Requires Repentance

Being lukewarm is a serious condition. It means running out of oil when one needs it most. It means missing the bridegroom. It means being locked out of the wedding feast because one’s lamp has gone out. (Matthew 25:1-13, Revelation 3:14-22)

The Spirit’s presence within us leads to a life that bears fruit. Those who submit to the Spirit will bear the fruit of the Spirit throughout the remainder of their lives or they will need to repent and receive once again the joy of revival that they could have had all along.

Galatians 5:22-23 (AMP)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Hungry—Ovi Poetry Challenge

Though troubles turn about until
wild worries dominate your will,
be hungry and you’ll have your fill.
Be still and know He’s God.

______

Ronovan Hester offers the inspiration “” for this week’s Ovi Poetry Challenge. I am grateful to Mary  (tqhousecat)’s recent post featuring Psalm 46:10. This poem has also been posted on Poet’s Corner.

Psalm 46:10
Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Balance—Six Sentence Story

Hoping to balance his wobbling view of reality Timothy read the message inside his fortune cookie. Given his expectations for something prophetic he felt cheated when all he read was

Have a nice day.

Self-diagnosed with the rare condition of being intellectually superior to everyone else, he vowed, as punishment to cookie makers everywhere, to never again eat, let alone read the messages within, their cookies.

However, like all of his previous resolutions, this one collapsed a week or so later when he got a taste for Chinese food and found a plastic wrapped cookie in his takeout bag. Figuring “the universe”, as he liked to depersonalize reality, was too dumb, or nonexistent, to care whether he kept his vows, he broke open the cookie to extract the hidden message. Regardless what was actually written on the slip of paper, all he remembered of the message he read was

If you aren’t grateful for a nice day, Timothy,
how can you expect to receive a blessed one?

______

Denise offers the prompt word “balance” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.