In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Do or Die.”
The Daily Post has told us…
You have three hundred words to justify the existence of your favorite person, place, or thing. Failure to convince will result in it vanishing without a trace. Go!
My first love is Christ. It is for Him I live because He has died for me. So great was His love for me that He gave His life for me while I was still His enemy. I suppose there are some who would say that what needs justifying is not God’s love but His very existence. I think if the reality of God is established then The expression of His love goes without question.
Here’s the thing, I cannot prove the existence of God. I do not need to. He is quite capable of defending His own honor and proving His own reality without me. In fact were I to turn and disparage His existence He would only become more real.
Voltaire declared that within 100 years of his life the gospel and God would fade into the shadowy world of fairytale. His house became a center for Bible distribution. Jesus’ reality and reputation has withstood the onslaught of detractors and dishonorable supporters without becoming tarnished or faded in the least. He is the Alpha and he shall be the Omega. HE has already died and resurrected so nothing anybody says or does will change or remove His place from the history of mankind. It is after all HIS STORY!
Tag Archives: The Daily Post
My Week In Song
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Playlist of the Week.”
Check out how others sang their way through the week by clicking above.
SUNDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY
FRIDAY
TODAY
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All’s I’m Left With Is James
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Burnt.”
The Daily Post has asked Remember this prompt, when your home was on fire and you got to save five items? That means you left a lot of stuff behind. What are the things you wish you could have taken, but had to leave behind?
“You couldn’t save anything?” Melanie asked.
“Sorry Honey. Nothing.” I returned
“You couldn’t save Great Gramm’s sewing machine?”
“Nope.”
“What about the cool decorative wine bottles that belonged to Grampa Jack?”
“Not a one.” Was my reply.
” The little monk salt and pepper shakers that Gramma Lillie bought for her first apartment?”
“Sorry honey.”
“Tell me you at least saved the dining chairs for our new apartment.”
I shook my head in the negative.
“Well at least you have copies of all James’ Graduation pictures. We’ll have something to hang on our walls.” My daughter beamed
James groaned at the prospect that his own picture had now become his inheritance.
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At Least I Know James Is Safe!
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Burning Down the House.”
The Daily Post has asked…Your home is on fire. Grab five items (assume all people and animals are safe). What did you grab?
My son-in-law and I actually joked about this on the day of his wedding.
I awoke to the sound of the alarms going off in the hall. Thick black smoke already engulfed most of the stairway. So I kept low clutching my little dogs close to my chest. Mom and my sister were already at the doorway and headed across the porch. I handed Jacopo and Mercedes to Brenda while mom carried Snug. I tried to launch myself back through the door to save what I could from the house but the old place was a tinderbox. There was no saving anything that was inside. We were glad to escape with our lives.
It was at that moment that I was glad I had saved all my pictures and all my words to several thumb drives in several locations. I would not want to lose any of my photographs or stories. Most precious of all are the pictures I have of my son-in-law James. There are few of these and he really hates them all. A father-in-law can never have too much leverage.
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A Fireside Chat With Ben, Tom and J.S.
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Fireside Chat.”
The Daily Post has asked, What person whom you don’t know very well in real life — it could be a blogger whose writing you enjoy, a friend you just recently made, etc. — would you like to have over for a long chat in which they tell you their life story?
Well I had a hard time narrowing it down to one. I actually had a hard time narrowing it down to three but that’s what I did.
With four people who write or talk as part of their ministry it would probably take more than a fireside chat just for introductions. We’d probably need at least a weekend to get all the stories told maybe even longer but I would really love to get together with:
Ben Nelson from http://anotherredletterday.com/
Tom Raines from https://tomraines.wordpress.com/
and J.S. Park from http://jsparkblog.com/
to learn their faith stories. I have really enjoyed reading the uplifting blogs these men write and would love the opportunity to learn more. One thing I know if we cannot make it work this side of glory these men can feel welcome in my mansion when we get to eternity and won’t we have stories to tell then?!?
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Two Right Feet In Prayer
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Two Right Feet.”
The Daily Post has asked us, What are the things you need to do within 30 minutes of waking up to ensure your day gets off on the right foot? What happened the last time you didn’t do one of these things?
For me this is all about prayer and Bible Study. I am finding the older I get the more regimented I get, particularly in the spiritual disciplines. As a young guy I thought the lifestyle of discipline was stodgy. There was a part of me that thought if it wasn’t unscripted or spontaneous then it wasn’t real, but the older I become the more I see that intentionality particularly with the spiritual life is the pathway to the longevity of success.
Beginning the day with prayer and study allows me to tune my spiritual senses to the voice of God. It allows His conviction and direction to come in. When I miss my time in prayer I feel like I am in a ship with neither rudder nor paddle being driven along by every whim the river of life brings my way. So most mornings now I make the time to pray.
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Serenity
This week the Daily Post has asked us to display: SERENITY
Discover other serene spots at
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/serenity/
Here are mine along with a poem I love from Emerson
The Apology
Think me not unkind and rude
That I walk alone in grove and glen;
I go to the god of the wood
To fetch his word to men.
Tax not my sloth that I
Fold my arms beside the brook;
Each cloud that floated in the sky
Writes a letter in my book.
Kylemore Abbey
Chide me not, laborious band,
For the idle flowers I brought;
Every aster in my hand
Goes home loaded with a thought.
There was never mystery
But ’tis figured in the flowers;
Was never secret history
But birds tell it in the bowers.
One harvest from thy field
Homeward brought the oxen strong;
A second crop thine acres yield,
Which I gather in a song.- Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The Daily Prompt: Connecting the Dots & The Blood Of the Martyrs
In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Connect the Dots.”
The Daily post gave us this instruction today,
Open your nearest book to page 82. Take the third full sentence on the page, and work it into a post somehow.
Pg. 82 of the book nearest to me read, “As new tombs were needed the tunnel was lengthened and new chambers were excavated on both sides…
Here is a short story based on the book this was taken from, The Blood Of the Martyrs.
The House Of Worship
by JE Lillie
It had been a month since I had seen daylight. The catacombs were not just the place we buried the dead. They had become our sanctuary in every sense of the word.
The number of martyrs grew by the day. Johanan had been fed to the lions a week ago and then his wife Cybele had been burned at the stake as her children watched just two nights later. Nicanor and Lavinia had been sold as slaves in the market, confirming my mother’s decision to stay below ground with the dead.
The dead or what pieces of them could be salvaged were brought to our little family sheltering in the catacombs and we saw to their Christian burial. The hidden cemetery was filling fast so “As new tombs were needed the tunnel was lengthened and new chambers were excavated on both sides. My hands did some of the digging.
My fourteenth name day came and went while I dug away in the catacombs making a space for the newest family of martyrs. In the process we were told to make a chamber wide enough for the church to meet in.
I still remember the night we Christened that new section of tunnel. We, the soon to die, sang hymns among the dead and relished the thought of the Coliseum if only it would take us into the sun and out of the musty, dirty darkness that had become our house of worship.
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Uncle Tom and the Gift Of Tongues
The Daily Post has asked us to…Describe a memory or encounter in which you considered your faith, religion, spirituality — or lack of — for the first time.
You can see how others met this challenge at
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/in-good-faith/
As a boy of thirteen I had an intense spiritual hunger. I suppose I had always leaned toward the spirit world. Growing up the first books I remember borrowing from the town library were stories of the Greek gods and the writings of Uri Geller and other famous psychics.
I don’t remember a time when I didn’t believe in the supernatural or in a higher power but my search for that higher power began in earnest at the end of my eighth grade year. I remember telling my mother that I thought some day I would become a minister. She scoffed at the idea because at that point no one in our immediate family even really believed in the biblical God. My grandparents were believers but they didn’t wear their religion on their sleeves or anything like that and their pastor at the time was more in tune with Universalism than Christianity.
I met a girl in school whose family members were committed Jehovah’s Witnesses and she began witnessing. Through a series of events my parents found out and insisted that if I was really interested in church then I was going to go with my Uncle Tom. They thought he was crazy but at least they knew he was harmless and crazy.
So began my journey into the Christian faith and away from the neo-paganism I had known. The story is long and convoluted but suffice it to say the first time I heard someone deliver a message in tongues and another person give the interpretation, I was hooked. Uncle Tom and the gift of tongues showed me the way to a real personal and supernatural relationship with God through Jesus Christ. God can and will use anything to bring a seeking soul to Himself.
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My Sanctuary
The daily post has challenged us,
A sanctuary is a place you can escape to, to catch your breath and remember who you are. Write about the place you go to when everything is a bit too much.
You can learn about other oases at
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/oasis/
It’s funny I live in a world of sanctuaries. A minister, after all, is never far from a church and every church has a sanctuary.
The sanctuary of St. Bavo’s in Haarlem
Cornerstone church’s sanctuary VBS
The Sanctuary of the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft
But for all that I would not say I find sanctuaries particularly peaceful places. Perhaps it is in the quiet of a church sanctuary that others find peace. But in these places I go to work. It’s in these locations I wage my war with the souls of men.
There are moments, for all that, when I find the sanctuary a quiet sanctuary. Early on a Sunday morning before anyone arrives for service, for instance (though that has to be pretty early) or late at night after everyone has gone home. But if I am going to speak of an oasis, a place of refreshing, a location of constant quiet and peace I would have to say that is my bedroom. I don’t work there. It’s my space and no one else’s. I can read. I can pray. I can recreate. Beyond that the world’s expectations do not encroach.
Lillie-Put 
