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Rachel's Tears (Matthew 2:18)

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Where is God's view in all this? Do we listen if he were to speak? I think not. I think we are deaf. We are concerned with our own daily need to stand for views that divide and thus, when a child, when a mother, when the innocent are slaughtered, we take sides. Some will stand with the people of Moses. Some will stand with the people who brought Messiah to the world. Others will stand with terrorism, a pledge to kill in the name of God. They will praise the destruction of a people. They become the bloodied Satan and will receive no reward. I console myself by saying the temple is not rebuilt. But in this awful time the streets of the Holy Land are desecrated. Voices cry out in Ramah, women wail and mourn, Rachel is weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted, because they are no more. copyright 2023 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author

Stone Water Jars (John 2:1-10)

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The instructions came from one who was simply a guest. He told us to fill the six stone water jars with water. Only water and nothing more.   Who is this man? I asked one of the others. I heard the name Jesus, son of Mary, a cousin of the groom. We are going to drink water at a feast, another whispered.   In my foolishness I laughed softly so none would hear.   A moment after the jars were filled and brought to Mary’s son, He told us to draw some and bring it to the man in charge.   The master tasted wine, the best wine, from this plain water. This son of Mary did nothing but instruct and the fluid obeyed.   Forgive my doubts my foolishness and my laughter when I am instructed to perform tasks I see as impossible. For you are always present, turning my plain water into the most palatable wine. copyright 2016 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author From the Collection;  Pictures of the Messiah

The God Who Sees Me

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And he said, "Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going? Genesis 16:8 Bernardo Strozzi - Hagar and the Angel 1603 You are the God who sees me. In my affliction, You stood Beside me on the road to Shur. You reveal yourself when I have run to nowhere. I stand in the desert, a homeless slave. Yahweh, You come and promise descendants, You make a covenant with a slave. God hears, and the child of both nations will be born, amidst blood and hostility. My future is not in the hands of my master, but the arms of my God. copyright 2023 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author

My Father's Home

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She was a bit young for ministry.  She wondered if that was how the congregation thought.  But she was here because of circumstances beyond her control.  The church was small.  She'd grown up in it and had now returned.  She sat back and listened to the small choir sing out, 'The Church is One Foundation', and considered her place within these walls. There'd been a thought running around in her head the last few days.  She managed to get a grasp on it last night during prayer.  She jotted down a few notes and brushed them up while eating a piece of toast before service.  She was nervous and knew it showed in her voice, when she gave a morning blessing to those in attendance. The Gospel reading had been from the Book of John, Chapter 2, verses 13 to 22.  She read God's word as put on parchment by the apostle.  After reading the passages last night she pondered arguments of religious men as to who wrote the Gospel.  She believed the w...

Psalm 137 (An Inspiration)

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By the Waters of Babylon , painting by  Arthur Hacker , c.  1888 Loss and hope, we sit here and weep, remembering what we had. The good days have faded, those we took for granted. The world says be joyful for what we have accomplished, I am sad for what we've lost. I hang my harp in the willow. I will not sing for your cause, nor will I dance. How can I say, this life, the one the world adores, Is better than any other. Loss and hope, the waters of Babylon flow by. This world seems foreign. The songs sung here are in languages I cannot understand. For on one day they burnt the holy city. On the next they crucified love. copyright 2023 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author

Scatter Good Seed

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Inspired by a line in Mike Pinder's song 'Have You Heard' Recorded by the Moody Blues, on the album 'Threshold of a Dream' Scatter good seed in the fields. The line of a song stays in my mind for days. Have you heard? The song writer asks the question. I have listened to the melody. I have sung the words in beat with the spinning disc of vinyl. But have I scattered seed, and is any of it good. It's odd, how the focus of my mind holds on to those worlds. The rest of the song, though beautiful and prophetic, doesn't strike me today, as those words do. Scatter good seed in the field. Sometimes I need to remind myself that these words are seed. They can bring out good, or evil. It is a matter of how they are scattered and where they land. copyright 2023 - Donald P James Jr https://www.amazon.com/stores/Donald-P.-James-Jr./author

The Park Bench

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The two old friends met most mornings at the park entrance.   They would slowly wander the path which led along the east side of the pond until they came to a wooden bench they considered their own.   They had each reached the age of seventy-nine in the past six months.   Elmer Benson was a widower, having lost his wife three years ago.   Paul Hagerty’s wife had been placed in a convalescent home a year ago with late stage Alzheimer’s. They both took a seat on the bench and watched a pair of ducks swim along the pond’s edge.   A young boy and a middle-aged man stopped to view the waterfowl. “I stopped by the home yesterday afternoon,” Paul said. “Don’t you most days?” Elmer asked, knowing his friend suffered the pain of visiting his wife daily. “She hasn’t known who I am now for nearly three months.   For a while she would seem to come and go.   My heart aches for her to come back one more time.” “Your Alice is a good soul,” Elmer offered. ...

Foolish

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Miles Conrad coughed deeply as his son sat at the conference table and opened a file. "Maybe you should be home, like the doctor's said," Daryl said. Miles was proud of his eldest.  He had graduated near the top of his class at Harvard Law School.  Miles intended to make him a partner at Conrad, Jennings and Horwitz.  Daryl had expressed an interest in setting up a practice of his own, somewhere other than his hometown.  Still, he promised to hold down his father's end of the business until the elder man's health improved. "We could have done this at home," Daryl added once his father had stopped clearing his lungs. Miles Conrad had smoked in his youth.  He gave it up fifteen years ago.  Too late, the tar and nicotine had done their damage. "Not staying in bed like some invalid.  There are things worse than radiation and chemo." "Not many," Daryl said under his breath. "So, have the changes been made that Nicolas requested?"...

Share, Share, Share.... Please

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  Share, Share, Share.... Please https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CG84MWZ8 Afternoons with Mister D is now available on Amazon and is available in both print and eBook formats.

The Sower (II)

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“You know I’m broken,” she says.   He nods, understanding her need to continue her story without interruption.   “I’ve never been loved.   Not a real love.   I’ve been used.   People have said they loved me, but they always wanted something in return.   That’s the way it is with love… right?   It’s never free.”   “You think there’s a monetary price?” He asks.   She pauses for a moment, but responds before he can fill the void. “No not monetary.   Sometimes I wish that’s all that was involved, money.   Sometimes the price is pain, emotional, physical.   Sometimes there is humiliation.   I’ve been stripped, I bear my soul… and then I’m tossed out like the trash.”   “That isn’t love.”   “They call it love.”   “Just saying,” he adds.   “My mother called it love.”   “But do you think it was love?” He asks.   “I wanted her to love me.   She told me once she considered abortion.   I feel so...