Boiler engineering challenged the faculties; spirit soul and body. We had to stay sharp, sober, and watchful; at the same time, we tried to dodge anger, resentment and bitterness. As the last five years plodded onward, steam plant reeked negligence. Budgetary frugality inhibited any real maintenance, and with this stance came the digression. No longer were all six boilers ever in operation, no longer was the coal of adequate BTU’s. Warning whistles and flashing lights functioned accurately less and less, as the steam output meter registered just above warning. Folks know what a rake is because of their yard or garden. Our rakes, 40 pounds of tempered steel, measured eight feet from hand to claw. With these we made coal burn and effected tubes full of treated water to sometimes find evaporation; sometimes even steam. Thermostats that regulated water level in the tube–fed drums were often gummed up or broken.…
Category: <span>Liberty – Redemption</span>
God’s healing of his people contains serious aspects. I am not certain what they all mean; perhaps we must all reconcile mentally with God’s planet-wide cursing after Adam and Eve’s sin. Life at times dishes out toil and little fun; I really don’t get it. Nobody will argue against the reward found in making an honest living and raising a family; building a house etc. Ecclesiastes 9:9 says “live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which He hath given thee under the sun all the days, of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life and in thy labor which thou takest under the sun”. Necessary degrees of resistance sharpens the face; what else can we deduce? At last, life’s puzzle bullies us into figuring it out, and as we yield to it, more…
The quality of mercy is not strain’d. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest: It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. What all includes the results of mercy? It, for certain, escapes the earthy. Divine favor, yes Divine, I say, it multiplies, a gathering of honey, dripping comb wide. Rain, like that which soothes the hard day’s scorch, And more; topsoil and clay both absorb, Blood is our sprinkle, water the shower, But what’s the filth for wash this hour? A hideous substance, a lingering debris, It identifies me, and will not let me free. It drags me to turn, hangs over the shoulder, It lurks in corners, and makes me feel older. It opposes spontaneous, it inhibits free, It clings so sooty, it covers the knee, Moistening tear ducts, and standing neck hair, It hardens like Brillcream,…
It is really a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. Yet in the midst of it I have found a quiet and holy people. They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of this sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus are the Christians- and I am one of them St Cyprian Lets talk about the hows of getting things outside of us, inside of us. We do it all the time by accident but how on purpose? Well, God simplifies this for us. He enters us when we believe in Him, and brings all His endowments with Him. But is this enough? It is more than enough for now and forever. Also it champions a start to what is to come still in my remaining time controlled existence. Make…
New Mexico Scene “What is grace?” I asked God. And He said, “All that happens.” Then He added, when I looked perplexed, “Could not lovers say that every moment in their Beloved’s arms was grace? Existence is my arms, though I well understand how one can turn away from me until the heart has wisdom. ”St.John of the Cross Christ’s coming brought grace. The law came by Moses but grace and truth by Jesus Christ. O happy day! The subject of grace presents a vast topic but essentially grace means favor; a disposition to grant something freely. Christ releases the Father’s disposition to grant something freely, having died in our place as our representative man. Any “worthiness” aspirations by us to gain a thing, would eliminate grace. Self-merit can only conjure a wage. Grace earns no paycheck, neither becomes one; grace stands outside of this rationale as screened. A…
“Guilt leaves me through my arms and hands and goes on the head of a goat or sheep.” “Oh really? What does the guilt look like?” “Don’t know and don’t care; must be in the form of some psychic force. Thankfully the weird power that came over me has left, just as quickly as it came.” “Does the goat faint or falter at the receiving of it”? “I would say yes, and cries out as if forsaken.” “You must have had some big guilt.” “Well this goat was receiving the guilt of many others too.” “Oh! Guilt makes me feel like I don’t belong; do you think it made the goat feel that way also?” “I guess; the goat took the guilt and was led away to a place where nobody was allowed to go.” “Hey, goats can’t feel lonely” “I think they are aware that they are alone, just…
“All language has taken an oath to fail to describe Him; any attempt to do so is the height of arrogance and will always declare some kind of war” – Meister Eckhart Let’s talk logics. OK. Deductions, having reasonable presuppositions, encapsulate good logic, right? Yes. In other words, having a set of pre-supposers (things we take for granted as true); to form a protected disposition of mind, ranks high in our logical scheme, right? Yes; well maybe. What am I getting at? Many of man’s pre-disposed value-systems sophisticatedly only entertain carefully selected concepts. But where cometh these concepts? Well, any topic bringing a reaction in the emotions will soon be screened out of a person’s consciousness. What remains, become presuppositions. Some call this process narrow-minded thinking, but being temperamentally cool and in a stable mood sets the goal of the soul, right? Psychological deductions build safe pre-supposed areas, awesome if…