Scarlet Robe Creations

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh Ezekiel 36:26 That heart of stone weighs down grace. The rock cannot be softened to allow the Spirit entry. It is the world's influence, no doubt, but the fault truly lies in the heart made of stone. Give me a supple heart, one that feels the fingers of your hand. Give me a heart willing to embrace the world's deformities with the words you speak. Give me a heart stronger than a rock. Give me a heart of flesh. copyright 2024 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author

Pride, the opposite of humility, the door through which demons may enter, invited. The source of sin, the worst of sins. Satan's essential trait. Thoughts that center around self, without God, without love of other. Pride, where grace cannot exist, a viper that gnaws on the heart, tearing down peacefulness, and leaving broken vessels in its wake. Hubris wears a guise which is false. It is the heart of the fallen angels. It is love of self, and not God. copyright 2024 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author

She lays upon the plain white sheets, ones that crinkle with every movement, but she hasn’t shifted a muscle in three days.     How long does the body last without water… food?   That’s all she has, a body, trapping a mind not quite ready to slip off into oblivion.   She has fought for every second, every minute, every day.   Still, for all her clinging, the inevitable bears down on her, a darkness she can’t conquer.   She hears voices, some distant and unfamiliar.   Her Jonathan is there, sitting by her bedside, as she told him he should be.   His purpose is to care for his mother.   He never married.   She wouldn’t let him.   If he had found a woman he would have become like his older brother, James.   Her eldest son has a wife and two daughters.   She has only a handful of pictures as memories of her only grandchildren.   Her daughter-in-law is to blame, turning a son against his mother and toward religion, the fabrications of weak minds.   She grabs a breath of air

Yet from the days of your fathers, you have turned away from My statutes and have not kept them.  Return to Me, and I will return to you. Malachi 3:7 The Prophet Malachi, by James Tissot It has been often that we turn away. Do we tire of God? Do we tire of His manna? Do we tire of obedience? You are descended from those who turned away. Like children unhappy with a gift, you have sulked into a corner, joining those who came before you. "I wish to turn back to you," says the Lord. "And I will. If only you want me to." copyright 2024 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author  

Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.   Where is the house you will build for me?  Where will my resting place be? Isaiah 66:1 And thus we build, churches and temples, houses that we believe will contain His spirit. How can we seek to build for Him when we are but a footstool beneath His feet. He rests upon this earth without causing it to crush beneath His weight. And thus we make Holy that which He gave life, unless it hinders our worldliness. We seek to define what He is, where He is, and what He has done, we, the feeble children, who sit in the shadow of His throne. copyright 2024 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author

Is He not the carpenter, the son of Mary... Mark 6:3 Mary's son. An insult spoken by those in His home town. Not Joseph's son, Mary's. He was a carpenter. He shows amazing wisdom, but still, He is the son of Mary. This is His home. This is where He spent his early years. He was but a boy, like any boy. Now He comes and speaks of things no rabbi has ever taught. May's son. Some will call Him as such, without knowing how they prophesize. They tie His lineage to his mother's name because they do not know His Father. copyright 2024 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted 2 Timothy 3:12 A sinful life is celebrated. A godly life is persecuted. Is our world turned upside down? This is how it was when the fathers of our faith walked over hard clay in worn sandals. Paul instructed Timothy, a warning. Those who believed in the power of the cross would be thrown from the temple and stoned in the street. Is it so today? If you stand up for life, are you not anti-choice. If you stand up for marriage, are you not labeled with a phobia. And if you stand up for God are you not against this world's chosen culture. Celebrate if you are persecuted. You belong to Jesus. copyright 2024 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author

The Raising of Jairus' Daughter - Vasilij Dmitrievich Polenov Conversation built on gossip, rumors, they do not know what they say. Yet they spread grief because it makes their life more livable. They sing of sadness and cry out loudly, as is custom, like fools. They do not know, they do not care. Sleeping or dead, still they make a sorrowful noise in the courtyard. Do not dance with them, nor sing the dirge. Do not give in to a grief they can't even taste. Today sleep will overcome the grave. The words will be spoken, "Talitha Koum!" and the child will wake. copyright 2024 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author

"So, we are talking today in our readings about bread that came from heaven.  Manna.  A flakey substance left on the ground, every morning.  There were restrictions.  God said to Moses, this was a test." She has been preaching to the people for three months.  She is the shepherd of a flock that belongs to the Lord.  The gathering isn't large.  The church is small, just a simple white church on a knoll with a steeple in need of paint and new pews.  The tiny building has a bell that calls out to worshipers every morning. This, with all its scars, is a piece of heaven. "Now put your self in the same position as the Israelites.  It's difficult to imagine living in the times of ancient Egypt.  The clothing styles, the food they ate.  All that is so foreign to our way of thinking.  Even the wilderness that the chosen people wandered through is something most of us have never experienced." She steps away from the pulpit.  She isn't a big woman.  She is rather p

Do you see the demons about you? Some of them wear the clothing of sheep. They wean their way into your life, twisting the words of the Author. What the Word proclaims as wrong, the world holds up as right. Those who recognize the emissaries of evil are accused of the demon's own sin. Who do you worship, things, people, emotions, or the one true God who walks the narrow path? copyright 2024 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author

 When I found your words, I devoured them.   Jeremiah 15:16 If I could never read another word, let Your words be those that fill me. If I could never contemplate another syllable let love be the last to touch my lips. I sing the sonnets of Your heart and You bless me with abundant joy. Your words. Your promise. Your fulfilment. My joy. Let them mock me because I choose to brand my soul with Your thoughts. Make me deaf to the world's slander. Make me blind to it's sin. I want only to sit in peacefulness, Your open book on my lap, Your words in my heart. copyright 2024 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author