long time

HELLO AGAIN!

It's been a while! I just want everyone to know, I am not dead. More stuff coming.

Love,
Stephen

Bible Time: Judges 17

I don't know how many of you have done this yet, but I just got finished listening to "Ten Shekels and a Shirt," the famous sermon by Paris Reidhead, I think for the fourth time, and it was just as convicting as ever.

For those of you who aren't familiar, this sermon is available at:

http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?lid=282

His text comes from Judges 17 and 18, and he begins with the story of a man named Micah. Micah made himself some idols and an ephod; he made his own little temple. One day he met a Levite man sojourning from Judah and asked him to be his priest, hoping for God's favor for employing a Levite. He offered to pay the man the annual sum of ten shekels of silver and a shirt, a good sum of money. The man accepted, being content to commit idolatry for the wages he would receive.

He challenges by saying that this attitude is adopted by so many "Christians" of the day under the guise of humanism. Humanism says that the happiness of man is the chief goal. So many of us use God as a means to bring about our own happiness, either in this life or the next. We either serve God because we use him to cope or succeed in this life, or because we are scared to suffer in the afterlife.

The reason for salvation, according to Reidhead (and I agree), is that it is the only way God can get glory out a human being. We serve God, not because he can do something for us, but because he is worthy!!!

I have struggled with selfishness in my own Christianity, served God to see what I can get out it, and hearing my sin preached against is always convicting. I shouldn't serve God because of what I can get out of him, it should be what he gets out of me; I should serve God because he is worthy to be served, and though I don't deserve anything from him, he has redeemed me with his precious blood and called me his child. Even if I was sent to hell at the end of my life, because God knows I deserve to be, it does not change the fact that God is holy and sovereign and mighty and deserves the highest praise and adoration. He is worthy!

I encourage you all to listen to this life-changing sermon if you haven't already and even if you have.

Monthly Poems: March

all poems by Stephen Byrne

"Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij"

Spiteful shadows lie in wait,
And quiet hides a killer.
Death constructs an empty space,
And murder serves as filler.
For all the moments spent alone
And all the miles apart
Stab my soul with silent blades
And pierce my distant heart.
The next best thing to being there
Is knowing where you are,
Yet chasms spanning oceans prove
Regrettably too far.
Despite endearing sentiment
A failure yet again.
By time zones and kilometers
Potential love is slain.
//

"empty"

You're so much better than this,
Too good to be this demeaned,
So consumed by hungry eyes
Raped by so much lust.
Yet you let it happen - you want it to happen.
Are you that starved for love,
That in wanting for affection?
Or has the root of all evil choked you
For the promise of comfortable lifestyle?
Either way, darkness has gripped your soul
But there is He who loved the whole world
That He cried for it, prayed for it, lived for it, bled for it
You are so empty, and He wants to fill
All you have to do is let Him
//

"Venus"

Poison drips from honey tongue
Hands so soft that grate your skin
Angelic voice, a siren's song
And raven eyes conceal her sin

For though her features have no rival
And all about her seems divine,
Beneath her surface lies deceit,
And all her motives breathe malign.
//

"Seeking Virgil's Seat"

Vigorous lines explode onto white
SOMETHING appears from nothing
An outpouring of my own bidding.
As I sit here uncomfortably
contemplating
Perusing over my own thoughts
Unsure
Of what to make of them
Certainty seems all too elusive
And order strikes me as altogether Ch AOtI c.
As time drags on, minutes melting together
Into one inconceivablyeternalmoment.
I cannot help but think of you, your face,
Your name illuminated in the darkness of my mind.
//

"Rector Mihi, O Sol Invictus!"

Horizons broadening -
A stream of light in the distance
Beckons like a woman thinly clad
Reaching into the deep recesses of the mind
Delving down into the desires of the heart
Shine on, O Beacon -
Tantalize, charm, enrapture,
Snare the soul that longs
Journey begins, arduous roads
Ripe with pitfalls, laden with dangers
Hidden and obvious, but no matter

I am taken to it, like a moth to flame
Though it sets me ablaze, still I follow.
//

All poems by Stephen Byrne
Copyright 2010

Passing Fads of My Youth #3: Tamagotchis

Ok, I am about to state a fact that cannot be refuted. If you lived through the majority of the 90's, you either had one, or you wanted one. You don't know why you wanted one, you only knew you had to have one. This was something that could not be described in mere words, it was something that the very fabric of existence seemed to rest upon... .

All hail.

Ah, the effervescent glory that was Tamagotchi. These small elliptical toys were all the rage amongst the kids my age when I was about 6th grade. Like iPods are to Mp3 players, Tamagotchis were the start of a growing phenomenon known as digital pets, or electronic creatures that you had to spend every waking minute taking care of. Basically, it was like having a real-life baby that didn't share your eyes, beeped at you instead of crying, and looked like the spawn of two or more random animals.

This one is a ducktopus. It has wings on its head.

These small abominations of nature were so lifelike, they required you to feed them at any and all hours of the day, such as 3 AM or 11 PM. You know, when normal people eat. They would get tired and alarm you that they were tired, at which point you would put them to bed, although this tended to happen exactly in the middle of class. To further the realism, these mutant time-wasters would also upon eating their daily meal would defecate upon the screen.

Adorable.

After this lovely act, you would be required to flush away their stool; otherwise, you would risk them getting sick, although them getting sick from their poop brings up other images that I'm sure the creators thought of. Once they got sick, you would be required you to administer medicine to them in the form of an intravenous needle, which may or may not have given children the wrong idea about antibiotics...or syringes.

Look at all this medicine!

Every so often, if you raised your creature well, he would change into a more advanced version, or "evolve." There was no advantage to this, as stronger, bigger Tamagotchis required even more attention than the younger stages, thus demanding more of your time and making you have less of a life than the miniscule one you already enjoyed. If you didn't raise your digital pet well (i.e. played video games, read a book, or did anything but look at the Tamagotchi every five seconds), he would "pass on" (die) to Tamagotchi heaven, which I hear is a lot like our heaven, only slightly more egg-shaped.

Tamagotchi angel.

Tamagotchi also helped give rise to the later popular Digimon, Virtua Pets, and Giga Pets franchises, cementing its place in American society. Despite their time-consuming capabilities and demanding existances, Tamagotchis taught us important lessons about the miracles of life and the raising of children. Most specifically if you don't check on your baby every fifteen seconds, something bad will probably happen.

He'll be ok for just a minute...

Bible Time: James 1

James 1 speaks a lot of lessons to me, but upon contemplation and reflection I find v 6-8 to be the most convicting. He writes, "But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." Too often I pray and ask God for something or I pray his will be done in my life, and then when I receive an answer, particularly an answer I do not like, I change my mind and decide to do things my way or I twist what God says to fit my own devious machinations. How can I expect God to give me anything if I don't trust him enough to provide it!? When I pray, am I sincere? If not, what is prayer if not simply talking to the ceiling? Moreover, how can I forgo the will of Almighty God for some petty human tactic. Am I really unwise enough to believe that I, in my limited knowledge and vision, am a better planner than an omnipotent, omniscient God? Surely he has reasoning beyond my comprehension for what he commands. I laugh aloud at my own foolishness, yet I continue to struggle with this all too often. What can I do to change this? First, I must pray with sincerity for the faith to trust the Lord that because his ways are not my ways, they are the best ways. Second, I must actually act in obedience to what he says to do; this is what he commanded. Thirdly, through this, it is important to realize I am not alone in these experiences, and God has provided me with a body of believers from whom to draw upon experience, encouragement, and wisdom. SB

I Am Your Gardener - preview of my next short story

The mind is a tenuous instrument, so fragile, and when it breaks, the consequences are dire, sometimes tragic, and sometimes murderous. These consequences are the stuff of legends and tales told around a summer’s campfire when the ghastly moon hangs full in the nighttime sky. The pitiable fools who share these stories have no idea of the words they speak, the severity of each syllable they convey to their companions. If they only knew, they would not be so brash.

“I am your gardener.” Each word that echoes inside her mind is a piercing syringe, injecting her with inconceivable fear. Poison courses through her blood, destroying everything that was her innocence. And he held the needle that contained the venom. It was him. He killed them.

It had been a prosperous year for the Maclays. James Maclay had finally found the success in finance he had been waiting for, and was able to move his family into their dream house, an 1787 French Colonial, standing blue and white in the serenity of a secluded area all their own. Maclay was proud to finally offer his family something he felt they had always deserved. The house, though more extravagant than what the Maclays were used to, still possessed a spirit of homeliness, albeit a bit eerie. Architecturally wondrous, it stood two stories tall, complete with balconies, a dance hall, and its very own outdoor garden. The garden was perhaps the home’s choicest feature, as one could lose himself wandering its blooming flowers and shady trees for hours, merely experiencing nature. With its great beauty though came an awful demand of time and labor that practically begged for a caretaker.

So began his search for the perfect gardener, one who would pour as much dedication and concern into the plants as James had into his family. One who called gardening his art.