My First Mayapple

The naturalist is not so,
Until he can determine
What scat belongs to what.
Or, in that perfect day
In May or June, look
Upon the plump Mandrake's
Fruit, and eat it after rubbing
It upon their shirt.
Only a seasoned naturalist
Can know the time
For all others are poisonous.
The plush juice, like a Granny Smith
Cucumber mixed with bug.

Lord Jehovah

Lord Jehovah-Jireh, Jesus Christ
I languished on my bed last night
Wondering whether I were in the fold.
I see so many believers, young and very old.
They cling to Bibles, without question
And like a sheep to shepherd drawn
The shepherd guides them and feeds them
And it left me in such wonder and awe.

Am I a goat, who must know the very law?
Or is a Goat one who feeds not the homeless
Or the widow visits or the orphan loves?
Or the prisoner he hates with passion
And the captive he does not seek?
And is it he who does these things, is he actually a sheep?

Or is a sheep a mindless drone, unquestioning about Paul's word?
That faith requires no works at all, and that is the leaven they have learned?
To simply believe, like a sheep, and chew on the cud?
Is a sheep one who does not question, or does not have any love?
They, their brethren, do so very judge
And all that's required is an idle word
"Jesus is LORD" my God
I cannot believe it... for you gave man creativity and a brain.
I think your law is brilliant, and it is extremely sane.
I must ruminate on it all day, the meditation of my heart
For Your law I love, and cherish, let Christ forgive me for being smart.

I do not understand the Christian worldview
Of unquestioned faith, and unparalleled grace
That would make immortal a holy prude.
For, maybe I sin by making my songs
But I think the vision was wrong.
I think it was my fleshly brain
For your kingdom I suffer long.

I sought you on my bed
And thought, "This is my God."
The one who lets me be what I am
And nurtures compassion and love.
The one who has a strong word to say
And condemns all sin in the flesh.
For by providence you make me walk
To what's my soul's true best.

Jesus Christ is the LORD.

My Commiseration with Atheists

I once had a night terror
I went to the Hotel California.
I saw my heaven petitions
And in that room I left
To find a curtain with a crowd
Of painted people---like in
A video game.
And they booed.
Above it was written,
"Brandon's Creativity."
I then was taken by a twisted ghoul into a prison
Down a cement corridor.

Today, I recall that dream
Listening to Fireworks
Conjuring that Isaiah 28
Is happening.

I then think about God,
That if He sent me
That dream, heaven will be
One apple tree,
Iron for wood, and Gold for Bronze
No heaven at all
But 1000 fruitless years
Spent on Earth, no Hephzibah
And that God hates art
And wants nobody to
Really think about what He's saying.

And if that god says, "Behold, you will know
"That I am God,"
I'll say, "Yes, and what a disappointment."

Luckily, that's not the real God of our universe.

[W]e know exactly who wrote [the Bible], when and how. We even have provenance that the Sumerians plagiarized us. Did you ever read Gilgamesh? Seems an awful lot like the writer met Noah. Also fits the timeframe, as the epic would have been written around 2200BC and the documentation of the flood shows in the record that it happened in 2450BC. In Chinese records and the missing 2nd Dynasty of Ur, and a similar gap happens in all world civilizations around that time.

On Biblical Slavery

Slavery in the Bible wasn’t immoral. The immoral thing would be not to have it, as many people are helpless without the right organization. It was a strategy to help keep people fed, so they couldn’t starve and was completely voluntary.

Not to mention they didn’t have heavy machinery or abundant moneys so they needed a way to do industrial scale work and compensate it fairly, and that was their way.

On the Bible

The Bible stories aren't made up. But a prudent man conceals knowledge. You can actually hurt someone's faith by telling them the Bible is literal. Plenty of sound teachers taught the stories were emblematic, as it's the Law of God which prevails and converts the heart.

The issue is we have to engage with a generation that cannot believe in anything beside evolution, unless thunderstruck by God with the truth. We have to increase the scope of God, and decrease the scope of the Bible. Because the Bible's moral law is true, and imperative for human flourishing and survival. And also it's imperative for salvation. We're not reaching people right now, and we must, or all is lost.

On Ms. Rachel

I don't know what to think about this. She seems like a very nice person... I mean, I probably feel the same way about [homosexuals]. I don't go around hating Gays or Trans people. I think LGBTQ is really messed up, and turning the world into a living nightmare---that's how we need to reach people, is that it's so obvious. But, we're never going to fix the brokenness of the world. It's just the way it is, and every generation is going to get worse and worse. That's been the progress for 6,000 years, until God moves, and resets it back into alignment. Which the next time that happens will be the tribulation.

I'd be careful judging her, to be honest. I think we need to be diligent to point out sin, because it is dangerous, but we shouldn't hate people. We need to rebuke out of love, and fear of God. Not out of a hatred for the people. As it's very dangerous, the LGBTQ. It's extremely dangerous. And we're only starting to see why. But personally, I thank God it is, because it's helped bring so many true converts to the faith, when you point out that this stuff is wrong, it no longer can be hidden or made excuse.

The World’s Romance

The world's romance are paramours
And love affaires---men's dispassion
And women making love with one
Who is not their husband.
It is the opposite of Odysseus's wife
Where the two, parted, make each their consorts
And loves luxuriously without one another.
My broken heart cannot bear it. 
Parted, no one loves or swells with joy
To see another, but rather stale misery
They meet their wives, and
"Misery me misery, I am not in love!"
Separately they live, and hollow was their marriage.
There is no friendship, no love in the bones
But cruel sex for childrearing
And the fruit of adultery's sting for joy.
I am not built for this world
But another it seems.
For all counsel me that this is how it must be.

A Forgotten Memory

In Byron's collection, marks a folded leaf
With the tally of a game I once played.
Whomever the people were, I know not
Only their first initials. The game, even
I know not, for there could be a couple
Which the scores would represent.
Was it Dad and Victoria? 
Was it Dad and Valerie? 
What even was the game?
Were it even someone I now know;
Maybe a forgotten person from my past
I met once, and never would meet again.
No game comes to mind, it is completely blank.
Eerie is this feeling, that some part of my life
Vanished, and how much of my life is documented
And I know not who, or what, or when, or how?

The New World Order

It’s hard to say [if it's real]. On one hand, Satan will have control over the whole world for one hour. And ten kings will reign with him. But on the other, I don’t think it’s something we as Christians should be worried about too much.

The issue is what is the New World Order? And that’s an order of Global Elites trying to usher in a paradise for the rich. Okay? They think people are dumb, and need to be wiped out… or so the mythology goes.

The truth is a little more complex than that. I personally think the “New World Order” is just the collective will and milieu moving in a bad direction. Like, there’s definitely an observable evil in the world, moving it toward dictatorship, and trying to destroy Israel and Christianity. Is it, per say, a Cabal of evil world leaders? I mean… in the sense that their ill will brings on the effects. It’s not true that they have any power that God didn’t give them. And I personally think, whatever’s happening, would be fixed if people had moral certitude.

It’s not about a bunch of seedy geniuses calculating the world’s downfall, and the extinction of man. It’s the collective evil of a bunch of people, from top to bottom, catalyzing that extinction. We’re not really doing things the right way.

Some examples, are we believe there’s no objective ethics. Such a stupid concept that there aren’t objective ethics—of course there are. It’s not a matter of “Are there objective truths or a science to morality” because there is definitely that. It’s that the science is something different than we want it to be. And that’s leading to the problems we’re seeing

God’s law is inherent, it’s inerrant, it’s established in our hearts, and in our minds, and it’s the law that would establish a perfect peace. It’s also so strict, that it puts every human being under condemnation for death. So, that’s why Christ came, was to free us from the yoke of the law, and yoke ourselves to Him, and be free to have charity, kindness, and peace in our hearts, rather than conform to outward laws, that we’re obligated to follow; so the Gospel is that we’re to simply do good because we have peace, and that’s our natural state.

So… if you have God’s peace, no New World Order can touch you. The Bible says it will hail in one place, but the slaughter will come nowhere near the people who sigh for the iniquity of Israel. If you sigh for the sin of the world, and you don’t accept it—and you have to sigh, you have to preach boldly against sin—it won’t come near you. You’ll have the mark of the inkhorn on your head, and the slaughtering implement won’t come near you. The hailstones won’t wash you away. The New World Order—Satan’s authority—won’t even be seen by you, and if it is, you’ll be raptured out of the world in that instant.

So… to conclude… the New World Order, the Mark of the Beast, the Tribulation, is not something we should fear. Yes, Satan will establish a kingdom on the Earth for one hour. But, that’s all. And if you are righteous, and fully trusting on the LORD’s mercy, you will be spared from that temptation, and will never see it. The LORD will hide you under the pinions of His wings.

The LORD rebuke you Satan.