Scarlet Robe Creations

Nicolas Poussin - Christ et la femme adultere "I had a dream," a young man says to his pastor. "I was standing before Jesus.  It was like I was dead and I was standing at the gates of paradise.  I could see a great shining city in the background.  I felt an urgency to want to be there."  The young man pauses for a moment, causing the pastor to speak. "And Jesus approached you?" "Not at first.  He was sitting on the ground, by a great wall.  There was just sand, you know.  Everything was dusty.  The sun was hot.  I could feel it.  It wasn't that way in the city.  I'm not sure how I knew that, but where we stood, it was dusty and we seemed to be baking in the sun.  He, Jesus, smoothed out an area on the ground and was drawing meaningless figures in the dirt... or maybe I should say dust.  Everything was so dusty." "Meaningless figures?" The young man nods his head. "They weren't letters or anything that might make words....

Are we more impressed by action than words? If so, are we not like them who ate their fill of bread and fish, multiplied? Do we explain away miracles, unwilling to incorporate God in their existence? If so, we are nothing more than the multitude, taking physical subsidence, but not spiritual. Are we those who know what we saw, yet give credit to our own errors of judgment, abandoning our belief that a single basket held two fish and some barley loaves, before He said "Feed them". copyright 2024 - Doanld P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author

James Tissot  -  Jesus Stilling the Tempest  Who is this man that the wind and the waves obey Him? Be still. Be Quiet. He has shut the seas behind barriers. He has made the clouds the storm's garment. He sets limits on the water's encroachment, instructing the proud waves to come no farther. Who is this man? He has taught crowds who would listen, turned away Pharisees and whatever they offered. He has shunned Hems and Tassels and embraced fishermen, tax collectors and prostitutes. Who is this man that the most fierce aspects of nature listen to Him and bow down at the sound of his voice. All havoc is silenced, the seas are calmed. There is quiet. There is stillness. copyright 2024 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author  

Marriage. What has God given to us? We are His own, in a likeness we find difficult to grasp. He made us male and female. He makes us  as He desires us to be. Marriage. "Have you not heard." Jesus spoke those words, when asked about divorce. He quotes scripture from the beginning. He made them male and female to be one flesh, one answer for two questions. Marriage. Defined without question by the voice that spoke the word. Yet we allow the thoughts of the weeds to interpret the syllables of what has been said. Marriage. The world shapes it as its own. That is a blasphemy of truth. Marriage is God's. It is a sacrament of His design, given to this world my His word. copyright 2024 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author

Sometimes we are nothing more than children, reaching for something just beyond our grasp. Sometimes our fingers can touch our desire, usually they fall short. We are not tall enough, or strong enough. We are not holy enough. Sometimes we are nothing more than children, forgetting than blood cleans our stains. We hope for growth that comes of our own accord, but falter in our weakness. We have not read enough, or prayed enough. We are not holy enough. Sometimes we are nothing more than children, reaching for something we are told we can obtain. Sometimes prophets impede our paths with their versions of truth, sometimes they direct us on wasted journeys. We have not been sown in proper soil, we are choked by weeds. We are not holy enough. Sometimes we are nothing more than children, sometimes we forget. We don't have to reach. We don't have to be strong. We don't have to grow to any great height. We need only believe that His blood cleans us, ...and we are holy enough. copyr...

Benediction of God the Father Luca Cambiaso By which name do you call Him, Allah, Jehovah, Yahweh? Regardless of the title, 'I Am', does not hate. He loves even the sinner, even one who hates in His name. He created you, not that you might stand toe-to-toe with swords at your side, but that you might lay down your weapons and sing praise. By which name do you call Him, Allah, Jehovah, Yahweh? By which name do you take another life? By which name do you condemn yourself? By which name to you slander your own soul? copyright 2024 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author

The shock hadn’t settled in yet.   A deep numbness took hold of every fiber in her body.   She walked aimlessly down the hospital’s corridor, not looking at any of those who passed by her, heading in the opposite direction.   The pale gray walls and the single gurney barely registered.   She turned a corner and stood frozen for a long moment as she stared down the lonely corridor. She was alone. The last few hours had been a blur.   Her mother was found, by a neighbor, unresponsive on the floor of her apartment.   The siren of the ambulance wailed all the way to the nearest hospital.   Doctors probed her mother’s unconscious body and seemed to speak in a foreign language. Aneurysm. Cerebral. Slowly, back against the wall, she slid to the linoleum floor, wrapped her arms around her legs and buried her face in the crevice between her knees.   Her mother was dying.   The God she’d given up on in college was allowing it to happen. ...

The Word, spoken, uttered, into a world created for the Word. The Word returns in fullness. The Word returns having accomplished the desired. The Word, spoken, uttered, made flesh to dwell among His people. copyright 2024 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author

A gift comes. It is offered without condition. You are not forced to take it. The gift will be there tomorrow just as it is today. It is for you. It is for everyone. The wrapping is not beautiful. The bow seems to be stained. Inside there is more than imagined. You have heard about treasure. You have heard about wealth. This gift is even more bountiful. But do you take it? Do you unwrap it? Especially when you feel the damp, stickiness on the ribbon. Are you repulsed by the blood? Are you repulsed by the scars? A gift comes. It is bloodied and scarred. It is bound to wood and bled of life. It is an offering. It is the promised. It is the answer to Isaac’s question. Where is the lamb? copyright 2024 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author