A New Creature. . . an Apostolic Pentecostal blog

I speak of no seen rainbow born of shining sun and drops of rain, but rather of the entire arc of heaven beneath which man resides. . . this spans from distant infinite beauty and glory and wisdom and power, to its nearer end, where is found a lesser infinity of unending unimaginable cruelty, darkness, and despair. The longer I live, the more apparent it becomes that the ability of man to serve suffering and pain upon his fellows, and indeed upon all of his domain, is only limited by opportunity and available power. Mankind does continue to change and advance and achieve ever greater capacities, but rather than providing needed energy for increased illumination, perversely, against all hope, this added power only allows man to be able to commit greater blackness. Each unimagined headline of man’s atrocities upon other men, is soon to be exceeded by some new grotesque and unholy hybrid of wicked human spirit and clever human invention. No. There is no pot of gold in that dire...

Not everything uncommon is beautiful, but that which is common will always cease to be considered beautiful. . .A person living in the mountains will long for vistas of rolling lowlands, peaceful slow flowing rivers and grassy emerald plains. . .Surrounded by rocky bluffs and saguaro cacti, beauty is seen in stately oak trees and crimson hued maples. . . That which is sinful or worldly is never rare, but only all too ubiquitous. . .In a sea of painted faces. . . extravagantly processed hair. . .and immodest attire, the wholesomeness of refreshing cleanness found in a woman modestly attired, with her God given face undiminished. . . is as an island to one long at sea. . .her natural beauty unaltered by man made artifice. . . is striking, refreshing, and restorative to the soul. . . For women to run to the example presented by the monthly magazine fashion models, is to join a stampede to destroy her own unique beauty, by striving to replace it by the cloning of the appearance, ...

Job seems to be the 'shadow of death' book of the Bible. The phrase first occurs in the Bible in Job, and by far Job leads the rest of the Bible with 10 occurances in 9 verses there. (Job 3:5) Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. (Job 10:21) Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death ; (Job 10:22) A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death , without any order, and where the light is as darkness. (Job 12:22) He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death . Job chapter 12 must be one of the best chapters in the Bible for describing God’s power and abilities. . . (Job 16:16) My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death; (Job 24:17) For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death : if one know them, they are in the terrors of the ...

Every time you hear the word ‘fruit’ you can substitute the word ‘consequence’. As a young child, I thought nothing of consequences. I did not understand that the likely potential consequence of playing with fire, was a greatly increased risk of being burned. I saw my parents not allowing me to ride my bicycle along busy streets, in terms only of the restriction on my freedom, not in avoiding a risk of being hit by a car. . . Later as an early teen. . . against the warnings of parents and all good sense, I began to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, use illegal drugs, and engage in sex outside of marriage. . .ignoring again and again consequence. . . Much of the wisdom of the elderly is rooted in intimate familiarity with the consequences of their life’s choices. Seniors possess long years of living with consequences. . . Consequences are the effects on the water after a stone is thrown. . . You have control. . . You can choose when and where to throw a rock into a pond...