BETWEEN APES and ANGELS

Here we are, Lord! Somewhere between the apes and the angels. But even the angels rebelled?! The apes, they are oblivious to their Creator.  What are we to do?

Damn our degeneration; we have decided that we are evolved barely above the apes. And we have forgotten that we were created only a little lower than the angels.  Honestly, it seems to me, that we just want to leave You out of the equation?!

Worse, it really seems that we have slipped in the pecking order!?  We act worse than the monkeys!  It is an insult to them to say "we are behaving like animals".

We are lost in this deep darkness below.  The jungle canopy is so thick, we can't even see the light above. Maybe, if we were to climb up in the trees we could catch a glimpse of the stars?  But, it has been so long and they seem so far away.

I guess we will just roam around here on the jungle floor.  It's a little muddy, but there is plenty to eat.  The bugs are kind of bad though.  Some of us still do howl into the darkness listening for an answer.  But all that is heard is an echo.  Except, sometimes there seems to be a roar way off in the distance?!

DESTINATION END OF THE LINE

Will we like it when we get there?  We are headed to a place very different than where we are leaving.  All will be different.  Landmarks will be upturned and toppled and removed.

The men will be indistinguishable from the women.  The women will be as hard as any vicious man that ever breathed.  Family will die.  Music will be replaced by disharmonious noise.  Joy will disappear.  Anger will be our primary emotion.  We will save the trees but cities will bulge with filth.  Faith will die.  Hope will disappear.

Can we turn back?  Maybe.  But, we are picking up speed in a downhill freefall.  We will stop when we run over the edge or crash at the bottom of the pit.

But, we are laughing and squealing, for now, dancing naked and drunk on the long, black train.

I see faces outside the window, screaming with urgency, "get off!"  Gotta get off this train!  I see some who are struggling up the hillside along the track.  Lord, send angels to show the way out!

The Ides of Jesus

I'd with You always and ever be.

Hide me safely beneath Your wing.

Abide with me even through the valley.

Lied have I, so often, about nearly everything.



Denied You and cursed and sworn "not known".

Cried, did I, weeping over such failure.

Died, on that Cross, despite being left all alone.

Wide, spread they Your arms, Your love is so sure!



Side, was pierced,  life giving blood flowing down.

Tried, did I, to follow, loyal to the death?!

Shyed, away, shrinking, and slipping around.

Spied, piercing glance, me cowardly, holding my breath.



Bride of the Son, all dressed in white?!

Dryed, are all my tears, gone is the "damn".

Fried, would have been, for me, the old Snake's spite.

Vied for my soul, the Shepherd sought this lamb!



Pryed from the grip of all the hissing fiends of Hell.

Ride on to glory; ever let loud praises to His name swell!

MODERN DICTIONARY EDITS

MODERN DICTIONARY EDITS

some changes in our dictionaries need to be made if we are going to continue to evolve.

1.      "NORMAL" -- this word should be removed.  There is no such thing as normal.  It is all about personal preferences.  And, the cognate, "ABNORMAL" must definitely be expunged from daily usage, and from all databases, spellchecks, etc.  One more thing, it is offensive to many; so, there is a town in Illinois that will just have to change its name from "NORMAL" to something less judgmental and more inclusive, maybe "TOLERENT" Illinois?!  And, another thing, “NORMAL INSTITUTE”?!  agh!  Teachers, of all people, should know better!  Furthermore, there may need to be some work done in mathematics and statistics.  Really?  The world is more about “standard deviation” than “normal distribution”.

(below is a preview and sample of more words that need discussion and deletion)

2.      "NEFARIOUS" will definitely have to go.  Also ... "PERVERSION" and other such archaic concepts ... such words are products of an unenlightened age of humanity.  Our words define and deform us.

3.      "SIN" obviously has to go.  It has no place in a modern vocabulary. (and, any cognates, such as "SINFUL" or the verb form "SINNING" ...

4.      "HOLY" in any form ("HOLINESS" or "UNHOLY") absolutely must be stricken from the dictionary.

5.      "GOD" can still be used, but only to strengthen "DAMN" ... but certainly with no real reference to any deity. (oops, another one?)

Somehow, I suspect that others are way ahead of me on this project?!  Maybe I should organize a house to house collection and destruction of unedited dictionaries?

SPINNING

SPINNING

Out of control, whirling from a hydroplaned wet road.
Swirling through time, barely aware of our start or destination?!
Twirling through the air, attempting a flip from the high dive.
This orb, circling, around its center, around its star, within a galaxy spinning within this universe?!
My head is spinning.  Show me the Center, the Source, the End.

1O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.

3When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?

5Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.

6You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;

you have put all things under his feet,

7all sheep and oxen,

and also the beasts of the field,

8the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,

whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

9O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

(Psalm 8)

THE WALK TO SCHOOL

THE WALK TO SCHOOL

School is a very good place,
but it's a bit of a walk to get there.
I look straight ahead, just in case.
Been warned,  "of side streets, beware..."

Some of my friends like to "skip"!?
Not sure why or where they all go.
Again, " straight there" was my Dad's tip.
But, friends whisper, "you just don't know!"

What's down those side streets, dark alleys?
My friends seem happy, and none the worse?!
The mountains are nice, but what's in the valleys?
I'm growing tired of "book, chapter and verse"

I glance, only seldom, down the detours.
But, lately it seems to be more often.
The sights and the sounds have their allures.
"Just once will not hurt, but never again"?!

Where did the time go, slipping away?!
I have learned so much that I'd like to forget!
I just dropped out, sometime back in the day.
Now I cannot even remember what I regret?!

The school bells now no longer ever ring.
Some kids may be home schooled, I guess?!
The side streets have not taught me one good thing.
Unless, it's that I have been on a fool's quest.

God, wake me up, from this nightmare!
How else will I ever escape from dark despair? 

THE WOMAN CAUGHT IN ADULTERY -- Part 2

THE WOMAN CAUGHT IN ADULTERY -- Part 2

You know this story!  Judgemental hypocrites mercilessly using a trashy woman to trap the "prophet of love, grace and mercy." 

Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?" This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her."  And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"  She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."  John 8:2‭-‬12 ESV

What you may NOT know is "the rest of the story" -- what happened after Jesus told the woman that He did not condemn her, but she should "sin no more..."

Unbelievably, the woman jumped up from the ground, and got nose to nose with Jesus, furious.

"What do you mean by that?!  Who do even think you are?!  You must think you are God himself?!"

Jesus just calmly looked at her, lovingly stretching out his hand to her shoulder, to calm her.

"No!  Don't you touch me!  You are no better than that group that dragged me out here.  There's absolutely NOTHING wrong with me!  I love everybody.  Those men have wives who are cold bitches!  They come to me for warmth, understanding, sympathy, love -- all those things that you preach!  You are just a self-righteous bigot, just like them!  You people, cold and demanding, are the "sinners" who need to stop.  Stop your demanding, legalistic, sexaphobic self-righteousness!  There is nothing wrong with my loving lifestyle!  Any synagogue that bars me is not of God.  You people can take me the way that I am, the way God made me, or you can just kiss me goodbye; and that is putting it politely!"

And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more."
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

Jesus turned, sadly, and walked away, mumbling, "Father, forgive them.  They do not know what they are doing..."

Holiness.  Contrition.  Repentance

God, have mercy on us!