R.J. Gilbert's Blog, page 4

The Breastplate of Breakable Promises

Part 2 of the "wrong" armor series.

 

The Demon Armor I address in this work is based on the Biblical “Armor of God” as listed in Ephesians 6. Most Christians are familiar with this passage and the spiritual trends represented. Few Christians, in reality, adhere to these spiritual traits. One or more of them have been replaced by the cursed armor-pieces I discuss here.

 

The Breastplate of Breakable Promises

 

Remember the beginning of Star Wars, Episode IV “A New Hope”?...

The Belt of Bigger Purpose

The Demon Armor I address in this work is based on the Biblical “Armor of God” as listed in Ephesians 6. Most Christians are familiar with this passage and the spiritual trends represented. Few Christians, in reality, adhere to these spiritual traits. One or more of them have been replaced by the cursed armor-pieces I discuss here...

 

The Belt of Bigger Purpose

 

The belt is situated just under the breastplate, and is designed to protect the wearer’s lower vital organ...

Why I Wrote "Men of Renown"

When I was a kid, my dad brought home an old book titled “Lost Mines and Treasures of the Pacific Northwest”. This well researched book holds an extensive collection of legends about lost riches in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Dad ignored some of the more famous legends, such as the discovery of Crater Lake by an expedition searching for a lost cabin mine, the shipwrecked galleon buried beneath the sands of Nehalem Spit, and the famous Blue Bucket mine of Eastern Oregon. Instead...

He Who Fears the Vampyre Hunter

He who fears the Vampyre Hunter

Sees naught in the mirror's pane.

He who opposes the cross and the clove

Hungers for blood in the living vein.

Many petition in favor of night

Though few remain at dawn.

Those who join them in banning the light...

Will miss it when it is gone.

The Slave and his Master

The man was an Anglo, with the fairest of golden hair and the bluest of eyes. To Rome, he was only a barbarian, captured and taken far from his homeland to be sold as a lowly slave within the ancient Roman Empire.

 

There came to the marketplace that day a wealthy nobleman of Rome, who saw the pitiful wretch upon the auction block and felt the spirit of goodness stir within his heart. Right then and there he purchased the prisoner, though the price was quite high. Even as the bill of sale...

A Sentimental Christmas Song

(Sung to the (over-used) tune of Canon in D.)

 

I remember the magic

Interspersed with the tragic

When I wore my heart on my sleeve.

In the days when I believed.

Now I’m left with an empty feeling

From a wound that has long been healing.

Once again it’s

Torn end to end by a

Sentimental Christmas song.

 

 

Take me back to when days were good.

I would go if I only could re-

Turn to my mother,

Bring another,

Memory I can’t get back to.

See the children in blanket sleepers

Christmas...

The Legacy of "One Last Dip"

It was the last youth-group outing of the summer. Soon my friend David and I would be starting sixth grade. As we packed up the church van and other vehicles that had gathered for a weekend camping trip, David decided he still had time for "one last dip" in the lake.

 

To make a long story short (I tell it too often anyways), David was left behind in the mountains of Southern Oregon, and our church went into crisis mode as the search to find him led into the night. (Keep in mind this was...

Distracted by The Preparations

Luke 10 tells a story of two sisters, Mary and Martha, whom Jesus visited while in their village. The Bible says that, during that visit, Martha became distracted by all the preparations, while Mary was focused on fellowship with Jesus. When Martha spoke up, Jesus answered that Martha’s concerns were many, but “only one thing is needed”, and that Mary had chosen it.

 

Historians can tell you how important fellowship is: every culture, no matter how ancient, had customs an...

The Ride-Along

This is a true story:

 

A woman brought her SUV in to have her alignment serviced. The mechanic could not find anything wrong with the vehicle’s steering or suspension. “There is something definitely wrong,” she told him, “The whole car shakes when I drive on the freeway.”

 

Determined to find the problem, the mechanic kept the vehicle overnight. The next day he told her, “I still can’t find anything wrong with it. I’ve gone over it with...

A Grim Discovery and A Deep Reflection

It was after dark when we returned to the farm from where we had borrowed two lambs for the church’s Easter petting zoo. The farmer had requested we return them to the pen in which they kept the other “Bummers”—lambs who had been rejected by their mothers and required more attention than the others in the flock. My daughter and her friends had named the 5-day old ewe “Lilly”, the slightly older ram had been dubbed “Willie”.

 

By headlight I a...