I found the following oratorio by Kathie Lee Gifford and Nicole C. Mullen on the The Marshall Report. It is about Hagar, Ruth, and David and then wondrously about Mary Magdalene (John 20:1-18). They all experienced crises. God saw them and answered them. He sees us as well.
Weekly Bible Reading:Leviticus (Audio: King James Version read by Alexander Scourby) Numbers (Audio: King James Version read by Alexander Scourby) Commentary: David Pawson, Leviticus, Part 2 of 2, Numbers, Part 1 of 2, Unlocking the Bible
Holy? Happy? Take your pick. “Give me both!” That was quick.
Eugenia offers the word “happiness” for this week’s Thursday Prompt.
I was listening to David Pawson’s second lecture on Leviticus this morning where he made the comment at about 8:20 in the video, “The only way to be really happy is to be really holy.” So that’s what I was thinking of when writing this poem.
To give in once may seem OK. It’s not like we’re addicted so around the carousel we go. “Hey, you could leave, but why today?” Around again we go. We stay to win the prize, a precious rag. Our anxious minds want more. They nag us with new offers: “Want a sip?” “OK.” “OK?” They now can zip us tightly in the body bag.
Ronovan Hester offers the rhyme word “zip” to be used in a D line of a décima having rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC for this week’s Décima Poetry Challenge.
I was thinking of C.S. Lewis’s Pilgrim’s Regress where the pilgrim almost at the end of his journey sees a witch offer a deformed creature a brief sip of pleasure which the creature knows would only increase its deformation. After it agrees to drink she turns to the pilgrim and offers him a sip as well.
Dale offers “inversions” as the prompt for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge. I’m not sure what inversions are so I merely rotated two photos 180 degrees. This is what I’d see if I stood on my head.
I am grateful to Cassa Bassa for a reference to a lecture by David Pawson on salt and light as mentioned in Matthew 5:13-16. I found a version of it which I am linking below.
As Pawson says, we live in “a world of dirt and disease and darkness” without salt and without light (about 21:20).
We are the salt that fertilizes the dirt. We are the salt that prevents disease from spreading. We are the light showing the way through the darkness. We are the light pointing out the ways of the world to avoid.
If the salt becomes contaminated with the ways of the world, of what use is it? If the lamp refuses to shine for those who have lost their way, why light it?
Weekly Bible Reading:Exodus (Audio: King James Version read by Alexander Scourby) Leviticus (Audio: King James Version read by Alexander Scourby) Commentary: David Pawson, Exodus, Part 2 of 2, Leviticus, Part 1 of 2, Unlocking the Bible
In faded denim, rosy blush, he offers her a polished stone from water where the rivers rush. She knows that she is not alone. In greens and yellow, alpine light, Today the festive way is bright.
Eugenia offers the word “celebration” for this week’s Thursday Prompt. Linda Kruschke offers these paint chip phrases, “mystical, faded denim, lipstick, halo, blush, polished stone, and alpine“. At least four should be used in a sixain stanza.
The fountains of the deep opened and the rains began. The earth quaked sending tsunamis over the land in wave after devastating wave burying living creatures successively in higher and higher mucky graves. In a few months there was no place to hide as the entire surface of the earth became a sea. When the waters retreated dry land emerged, eroded and tortured, above the waters.
Lot didn’t want to leave that day, but angels dragged them by the hand. His daughters didn’t understand. His wife looked back. She’d have to stay.
“I drifted slowly from the way through sweet deception. What a blow: I thought I knew; I didn’t know. That’s why we’re rushing out of there. We heard the screaming in the air, but it has stopped. We have to go.”
Ronovan Hester offers the rhyme word “blow” to be used in a C line of a décima having rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC in this week’s challenge. I was thinking about Lot and Sodom from Genesis 19.
In the past when I wanted to see the hidden world of devils or Satan I would read M. Scott Peck’s 1998 book People of the Lie. Peck attempted to develop a psychology of evil which led him into exorcisms with the help of Malachi Martin. See Martin’s 1976 book Hostage to the Devil. There were also C.S. Lewis’s accounts of Screwtape and Wormwood in The Screwtape Letters and the possessed shadows of hell in The Great Divorce who thought everyone else was the problem. However, much of this seemed remote from my normal reality.
Today, given the social context of fake news, fake science, fake elections, psyops and bioweapons, someone seems to have let Satan out of his cage if he ever was caged at all. Here are a few recent items I’ve come across.
Mario Murillo notes that just dabbling in the occult, even as a game, can leave one open to demonic influence unlike the conscious surrender required to receive the Holy Spirit. While I’ve heard this before, the urgency today seems new.
Geri Ungurean takes a look at Greek mythology as real and possibly satanic in a recent post.
John Gideon Hartnett provides a link to Altiyan Childs’ experiences with freemasonry. Childs’ video is over five hours long, but you’ll find there many examples of the covered eye, the hidden hand, the 666 finger sign and other symbolic communications I didn’t know existed before.
I found on Dianne Marshall’s blog Trey Smith’s video (linked below) which provides an overview of ancient history as it relates to Satan.
Although I’ve always thought Satan and his devils were real and needed to be avoided, at least as an intellectual exercise, today I wish I knew better how to put on the armor of God in Ephesians 6. Today I see why Jesus told us (Matthew 6:5-13) to pray to be delivered from the evil one.
Weekly Bible Reading:Genesis (Audio: King James Version read by Alexander Scourby) and Exodus (Audio: King James Version read by Alexander Scourby) Commentary: David Pawson, Genesis Part 7 of 7 and Exodus Part 1 of 2, Unlocking the Bible
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 