Scarlet Robe Creations

(Matthew 4.12-22; Mark 1.14-20; Luke 4.14,15; 5.1-11)   I labor with my hands. Hard calloused hands.   I know work and little rest. My night is finished, but you ask me to cast out one more time.   See these hands, teacher, these tired hands. They have mended nets torn by a day’s drudgery.   See these muscles, they are weary and seared. I have nothing to show for my efforts but sweat and ingrained filth.   And you ask me to cast out on the sea again.   My brother hears you speak and he brings you to me, hoping I will listen. Your words excite James and John, but they see life differently than I.   I need to feed my family. My brother and Zebedee’s sons chase prophets and harbor dreams that our world might be different,                 some day.   Your eyes look into my soul. What do you see in me? A body fatigued from its labor. A soul trapped in trial. I do as I say and n...

  Boats on the shore. Muscles,  tired and nets empty.   Taste of salty air odors of damp nets. Again to set sail after a night of wasted energy.   This gentle teacher who sees inside my heart, caresses my spirit and knows strength and fault.                  A miracle, the net which had not one fish  is filled, ready to burst and the teacher  just smiles  at me. copyright 1998 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author

Lord, I have tried not to deny You, but how often have I failed? Little tastes of sweetness which turn sour in my mouth. I hold the devils fruit in my hands and it burns my flesh. Have I taken You to places where Your love should never wander? Have I sent You off to tomorrow hoping to meet You there, because I was busy today. Have I chosen sins to ignore and scars to justify? Have I found passages of Your word to twist to my own? The wounds I suffer are not of Your infliction, they are of my own. Lord, denial is so close to being betrayal, brothers of a similar cause, but Peter offered repentance and Judas hung from a tree in Akeldama. Give me the humility of Your rock. Build upon me a foundation of faith, lest I become proud of my darkness like the one who was lost. copyright 2017 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author

I can't shake the feeling, lingering in my core, since the night in the garden.  Caiaphas instructed me to follow the guards out to the meeting point.  I would be his eyes and ears.  The High Priest hoped the Nazarene would say something, anything which could be brought as evidence in front of the Sanhedrin.  There were still a few members who needed convincing of the dire political crisis we faced.  As Caiaphas said, "It is better that one man be destroyed, rather than a whole nation." But the horror that occurred there still plagues my dreams by day and night.  The betrayer, I believe his name was Judas, greeted the one named Jesus with a kiss.  The moment seemed unreal, an expression of kinship in return for blood.  What did this disciple of his expect to gain by turning over a man who harbored no guilt? A sword was drawn to defend the teacher.  I saw only a flash of the moon's reflection in the steel blade.  The burly fisherman h...