Category: Christian Author’s Corner

Christian Author
Christian Authors

Your COMMENTS ON Posts by Christian Authors. A place FOR AUTHORS to share: your talk & witness of Jesus; something about your book(s), writing & upcoming projects; your website connection. And of course we welcome your contributions to any of the talkofJesus.com categories for Biblical quotes, etc. Authors may post via a COMMENT, which I will re-post OR we can arrange an Author Log-in. AUTHORS ONLY, but Readers, please add your comments. Thank you. Roger

  • The Cross Town Christmas Championship Bowl

    The Cross Town Christmas Championship Bowl

    Football Holiday Championships

    SUNDAY DECEMBER 25 2022 CE

    WELCOME

    DISCLAIMER: This is Fiction.

    The following presentation of football in the Christmas Bowl is fiction, making fun of US with our competitive gamespersonship represented in spoof, hyperbole, fictional events, characters and entertainment and in no way is intended to offend an persons, places, religions, mascots, colors, brands or any other real stuff not intentionally mocked in this important FICTIONAL sporting event.

    Mobile gambling refers to games that are played on a device that involve chance or skill for money. Online betting includes poker, casinos, lotteries, bingo, sports betting, horse racing betting, etc. Placing a bet in the state you are a resident in, is not considered illegal. But if you place a bet on a gambling site located in another state, you are breaking the law.  INFORMATION DISCLAIMER. ALL DATA AND INFORMATION IS PRESENTED HERE 'AS IS' AND SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED OR USED AS DEFINITIVE INFORMATION. THE ACCURACY, SUITABILITY OR COMPLETENESS OF ANY DATA / INFORMATION CANNOT BE GUARANTEED AND NO WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION IS GIVEN.

    The Pregame Show

    T.H. WELCOME to the most important event of your day – in fact, the game of the week played in the ADVENT HOLIDAY TOURS of most of AMERICAN Football.

    I’m your seasoned-face ANNOUNCER T.H. Pickwin along with my colleagues Big-Talk Passer and our close-up interview specialist Blondie Smilestats-Smith.

    Big-Talk, if you had been the QB for today’s Christmas Bowl game when you were in college a few years back [all smile, some chuckle] how would you have approached this key match-up?

    B.T. That’s a great question, T.H. First of all you may remember that when I came out of college this would have been just a post-semester trip to play football and tourist in a warmer destination, so this expanded playoff game series creates a lot of opportunities for unheard of football players to be seen by a national audience.

    BLONDIE S. You’re absolutely on target, B.T. In fact, today’s CHRISTMAS BOWL GAME is one of just thirty-five [35] college bowl games this December which could provide opportunities for thousands of players on seventy [70] teams to have their moment in the sun on the big-screen. [All nod enthusiastically.]

    T.H. Wow! And of course this means that these thousands of players will bring more than a million fans to watch these thirty-five [35] bowl games this month, not to mention the more traditional New Year’s bowl games and extended championship games into January.

    B.T. And T.H. all this in addition to NFL Pro games on Sundays and several other days in December..

    BLONDIE S. .. and let’s not forget that both college and pro basketball are getting into full swing too; which reminds me later I’ll have some inside information from the MLB winter meetings and the latest rumors of where the money-players will be moving next spring.

    T.H. Thanks Blondie. We look forward to that in your half-time insider report.

    NOW, due to some unexpected help from Mother Nature we will be taking you directly to our Christmas Bowl Kick-off report with B.T.’s keys to the game as soon as we hear from today’s sponsors of the College Football Holiday Bowl series.


    LIVE from the Christmas Bowl Kick-off

    Christmas Day 2022 of the Common Era

    First Half Matchups

    WELCOME to today’s unprecedented 2022 Holiday Bowl match-up between the traditional powerhouses of college football Mary Dame University and Southern Moroni of Utah State.

    Hardly anyone picked either of these two teams to make it this far in the mythical NCAA-NFL showcase series of college’s highest-paid athletes but today Mary Dame and Southern Moroni have proved that any of these fantasy league big-money picks sometimes miss their bet. Both of these teams were long-shots to make any impact on the big-money Holiday Bowl broadcast market.

    [Everyone’s picks to win]

    Half Time

    SPONSORED BY:

    The BET’CHA LOSE APP, official betting app of the NFL Draft and Kings of online betting in every living room.

    FIRST TIME PLAYERS GET $500 IN FREE MONEY!

    * Some (actually several) restrictions may apply. Consult rules and legal disclaimers for more information (if you can find them).

    Second Half Coach Interviews

    Coach, how will you win the second half?

    [10 second responses]

    Final Time-out

    WOW! Best game ever so far. Anything could happen.

    ANOTHER MEDIA TIME-OUT

    THE END?

    Miller-time Crowd response

    “We knew we could do it!

    Iconic Winning Player Comments

    “They played a great game!

    Coming up NEXT:

    THE 2023 OF THE COMMON ERA CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHUP!

    (sorry we ran late..)

    Christmas Bowl Game - football stadium cake with contemporary signs of sponsorship
    VIRTUAL REALITY STADIUM

    NEXT GAME will be the best yet!

    “You can BET ON IT!

    Our Crew & Sponsors

    AND DON’T MISS our upcoming broadcast LIVE and ONLINE with your VIRTUAL SPORT-BETTING APP of THE GAME OF THE WEEK for the NATIONAL PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE$ road to the SUPER-SUPER-BIG-BOWL$

    Post-game Sign-off

    Thanks to all of you and our broadcast team for your idolic media mission TO HELP OUR $PONSOR$ WIN your attention.

    $ee you NEXT game.


  • Gardener, Shepherd and Hunter: 7 Scenes Unseen by Man

    Gardener, Shepherd and Hunter: 7 Scenes Unseen by Man

    ACT 2 – Scene 1 – in an unseen place


    Where am I?

    I have brought you to a place unseen by man.

    You showed me a scene I had never seen of the death of Abel.. and Eve mourning the loss of her son murdered by her other son… and about sin in Eden. Was this story of Moses true?

    I have shown you scenes revealed to Moses from near the beginning of time. His story was true, though Moses was not there.

    Tell me, why did Moses leave Egypt?

     By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter..

    [Click here to read NASB in context]

    Hebrews 11:24

    By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he persevered, as though seeing Him who is unseen.

    Hebrews 11:27 NASB

    Moses was sort of a shepherd then, wasn’t he?

    Yes, in a sense.. But a later shepherd led his followers to the right answer from Scripture to your question. Do you recall what David said?

    מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד יְהוָה רֹעִי לֹא אֶחְסָֽר׃

    The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

    Moses followed the unseen Shepherd as he led the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt.

    So is this place like when you showed me what happened east of Eden?

    These scenes take place in the unseen places above the heavens — or beneath the earth — places connected to the timeline of man yet separate from the mortal life of any one man or woman.

    I don’t think I understand, I thought as my Guide explained unseen places where He has evidently led me.

    Allow me to show you one such unseen scene from around the time of Moses. The actions here impact a righteous man who lived in a different land. But this scene does not take place there.

    Unseen in Uz

    One day the angels [sons of God] came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan [the adversary] also came with them.

    The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

    Satan answered the LORD, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”

    Job 1:6-7 NIV

    Do you know this story?

    Yes. It’s about Job, who suffers all kinds of evil without knowing why.

    Is Job part of this conversation with the LORD in the unseen place? So who is the main character in this story of Job?

    I knew the obvious answer. Job was clueless about God allowing him to suffer severely for some time.

    Satan.. And didn’t you also say that Moses called him the Serpent?

    You yourself recognized the Serpent as the hunter. And what prey does he hunt?

    Souls! The soul of Cain.. the soul of Eve.. the soul of Adam..

    So too is Satan hissing at God when he calls for evil to tempt Job’s soul toward the pit of darkness.

    So the Serpent’s name is really Satan.

    שָׂטָן

    śāṭānnoun

    superhuman adversary, הַשּׂ׳ :
    a. of Job, one of בְּנֵי אֱלֹהִים Job 1:6, 7 (twice in verse); Job 1:8, 9, 12 (twice in verse); Job 2:1, 2(twice in verse); Job 2:3, 4 (twice in verse); Job 2:6, 7.
    b. of high priest of Israel before י׳, Zechariah 3:1, 2(twice in verse); Greek Version of the LXX. ὁ διάβολος.
    c. as proper name שׂ׳ Satan 1 Chronicles 21:1 (interpret 2 Samuel 24:1), Greek Version of the LXX διάβολος (Greek Version of the LXX σατάν 1 Kings 11:14, 23; Σατανᾶς Matthew 4:10; Mark 1:13; Luke 10:18 + 33 times NT).

    Source- [Lexicon :: Strong’s H7854 – śāṭān

    And as Moses said, this Tempter is cunning; and as a spirit shepherding evil in the unseen places he has many names, sometimes even appearing as a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

    שָׂטַן

    śāṭan – verb

    Outline of Biblical Usage
    (Qal) to be or act as an adversary, resist, oppose

    Strong’s Definitions
    שָׂטַן sâṭan, saw-tan’; a primitive root; to attack, (figuratively) accuse:—(be an) adversary, resist.

    Strong’s Number H7853 matches the Hebrew שָׂטַן (śāṭan), which occurs 6 times in 6 verses in the WLC Hebrew.

    Job seemed helpless; not able to do anything about the evil.

    Satan requested permission from God to contend with him on earth.

    My thoughts and countenance were really quite dejected by now..

    Remember what David said about the valley of the shadow of death? .. It is the place of evil.

    I recalled briefly the Lord’s words to Cain before he murdered Abel.. The LORD cautioned Able BEFORE he turned against his brother and against the LORD who was with him and leading him along the valley of the shadow…

    So how can any man resist evil from these unseen places and remain faithful to the LORD?

    Do you know how David petitioned the LORD when God was angry at him for his sin?

    Just like Moses, I thought, David had murdered a man. He had blood on his hands.. NO LESS THAN CAIN!

    A psalm of David. A petition. NIV

    LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath.

    Psalm 38:1 NIV

    Some prayers are praises to God who we cannot see, while others are petitions from our place near the valley of the shadow to the unseen place — a place above time and circumstance where the Lord sits on the Throne of justice and the Mercy Seat of redemption.

    Psalm 38 NASB, KJ21, OJB, WLC

    Yᵊhōvâ

    Hashem, rebuke me not in Thy wrath; neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure.

    2 (3) For Thine khitzim (arrows) pierce me, Thy hand presseth me sorely.

    3 There is no soundness in my flesh, because of Thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones, because of my sin.

    4 For mine iniquities have gone over mine head; as a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.

    5 My wounds are foul and corrupt because of my foolishness.

    6 (7) I am bent down; I am brought low

    I go in mourning all day long.
    7 For my sides are filled with burning,
    And there is no healthy part in my flesh.

    8 I am feeble and sorely broken; I have groaned because of the disquiet of my heart.

    David pleads for mercy, confessing his guilty deeds by which he deserves the WRATH OF GOD.. He then bows down to God acknowledging:

    Lord, all my desire is before You;
    And my sighing is not hidden from You.

    I know now after seeing these unseen places that I have NO right to expect anything from God…

    David is quiet before the LORD, then pleaing:

    Yes, I am like a person who does not hear,
    And in whose mouth are no arguments.
    15 For I wait for You, Lord;
    You will answer, Lord my God.

    AND listen to David’s plea to the Judge of all men. Read it:

    (WLC 38:21) וּמְשַׁלְּמֵי רָעָה תַּחַת טוֹבָה יִשְׂטְנוּנִי תַּחַת רדופי־ טֽוֹב׃

    They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries; because I follow the thing that good is.

    Psalm 38:20 KJV

    Eve encountered an adversary opposed to God! As did the first adam and the sons of adam.. Job.. and David.. And yes, so have you. And WHY? David tells us.

    Because those who follow God and do what is good suffer evil by the hand of the adversary of the LORD God lurking in the unseen places. For Satan is an enemy of all Light which overcomes the darkness.

    21 Do not abandon me, Lord;
    My God, do not be far from me!
    22 Hurry to help me,
    Lord, my salvation!


    The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

    Gospel of John 1:5 NIV

    The Gardener the Shepherd and the Hunter - Introduction to a story by Roger Harned

    To be continued…

  • Gardener, Shepherd and Hunter: 6 – Synopsis ACT 1

    Gardener, Shepherd and Hunter: 6 – Synopsis ACT 1

    The Scenes

    Once upon a time…

    An illustration of times in life beyond the bounds of time and place.

    We learned (with our eyes closed) that sometimes the only way for the blind to see beyond the ends of the infinite line of time is to listen to our Guide rather than than embrace the false vision of a fallen world.


    Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it.

    Genesis 2:15 NASB20

    The Characters

    • Narrator
    • a Guide, who has led our Narrator through scenes so far near the beginning of time and engages us in conversation and thought about God’s word and character
    • Cahyin – קַ֫יִן proper name, masculine Cain, Kain eldest son of Adam and Eve
      • a farmer (or a gardener)
    • Abel – הֶבֶל Hebel, heh’-bel; , the son of Adam:—Abel.
      • a shepherd
    • the LORD – יְהֹוָה Yᵊhōvâ
    • Eve – חַוָּה khav-vaw’ Eve = “life” or “living”
      • (living with the grief of the death of her son Abel and the sin of her son Cain)
    • the Serpent – נָחָשׁ naw-khawsh’, From נָחַשׁ nâchash, naw-khash’; a primitive root; properly, to hiss
      • the Hunter, cunning, constantly questioning God and known by many names

    Now Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a cultivator of the ground.

    Genesis 4;2b NASB20

    Some takeaways from Act 1

    He has sown the seeds of envy and will harvest the thistles of thanklessness.

    Insight of the Guide about the Gardener, Cahyin

    “Not only is this tragic death of their son Abel new to them,” my guide pointed out to me, “the impact of DEATH itself has just gripped Adam and Eve — two parents who the LORD had told many years before,

    ‘You shall surely die.’”

    Genesis 2:17 וּמֵעֵץ הַדַּעַת טוֹב וָרָע לֹא תֹאכַל מִמֶּנּוּ כִּי בְּיוֹם אֲכָלְךָ מִמֶּנּוּ מוֹת תָּמֽוּת׃

    You open your eyes in a place of darkness. And darkness and deception are the place where the hunter hides.

    If you look closely you will find the hunter wherever there is disobedience to God.

    Now the serpent was more cunning than any animal of the field which the LORD God had made.

    Genesis 3:1a NASB20

    Introducing the first adam:

    COMMENTARY: Adam did not create Eve. 
    Some Bibles translate 'Adam' as 'man' because Scripture commonly uses the word to mean (literally) mankind (by contrast to creatures of God not in His image).

    Lexicon :: Strong’s H120 – ‘āḏām אָדָם

    Then the man said,
    “At last this is bone of my bones,
    And flesh of my flesh;
    She shall be called ‘woman,’
    Because she was taken out of man.”

    Reintroducing ‘Eve’

    Lexicon :: Strong’s H802 – ‘iššâ אִשָּׁה

    For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife H802; and they shall become one flesh.

    Genesis 2:24 NASB20
    COMMENTARY: Note that WIFE and WOMAN are the same word: אִשָּׁה 'iššâ

    Once upon a time…

    … there was a woman. She was wife of the man. They both sinned. And almost immediately their own children (even as grown men) also sinned.

    It was only then that Eve would have wailed wantonly with tears of remorse.

    For by their sin, she and her husband would first witness death — as the LORD God had warned — DEATH of their son by the blood-stained hands of the first son of the first adam who disobeyed God.

    They had ALL been deceived by the constant, cunning questioning by the hissing hater of God.

    Did God really say..?

    The Gardener the Shepherd and the Hunter - Introduction to a story by Roger Harned

    To be continued..

    God willing…

  • Gardener, Shepherd and Hunter: 5- the Hunter

    Gardener, Shepherd and Hunter: 5- the Hunter

    the hunter


    Do you see him?


    I strained my eyes to look back beyond the time when I had just witnessed the killing of Abel by Cain. Not only was he not the hunter, but I could no longer see him in the chaotic mist of that place beyond the field of Abel’s blood. In fact, I could no longer see their field at the edge of the garden.

    I can’t tell what I see, but I don’t see a hunter.

    Did you read what I just showed you from in the beginning Book?

    I thought I knew it without having actually read the Scripture to which my Guide had pointed me. With a questioning tone in my uncertain voice I read:

    “So it came about in the course of time that Cain…

    No, son.. You must look back further in the beginning of the Book to what I showed you. Do you see it again?


    My mind wandered aimlessly back to what I almost recalled, but could not see.

    In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep..

    and God divided the light from the darkness.. ..the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night.. And God created .. every living creature..

    (Then my thoughts continued out loud.)

    So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them…

    “No,” I replied with the cluelessness of a student caught off-guard by a teacher. “I don’t see it. I don’t see any hunter.

    Do you think that you know good and evil from the beginning of the Bible?

    I dared not answer from this chaotic recall from my mind. (But I had read this frequently in the past.)

    You open your eyes in a place of darkness. And darkness and deception are the place where the hunter hides.

    Was this a hint from my Guide?

    Please, won’t you just tell me where I can find the hunter?

    If you look closely you will find the hunter wherever there is disobedience to God.

    I gave his words weighty thought as I listened to my Guide read what I had missed as my Guide then read from the Beginning to me.

    Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it. The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may freely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.”

    I had once memorized this from Genesis 2:16-17 and thought that I knew it well. But when my Guide recited it, NOT for my memorization but with authority, he said it differently.

    “The Lord God commanded the man,” my guide had emphasized.

    And then, as if to underline what he had just read, my Guide paused.. and looked into my eyes, making sure I was paying attention before he continued with what the Lord God had said.. I mean, what the Lord God had commanded.

    I wasn’t really thinking about the Hunter, then, but I knew it was important. He read on about the man being lonely and the woman being made from him.

    I tried not to let the naked part distract me (as it often did when I was a boy). So recalling that they were Cain and Abel’s parents helped. But then I couldn’t really see the serpent as a talking snake..

    Now the serpent was more cunning than any animal of the field which the LORD God had made.

    Genesis 3:1a NASB20

    Why did you stop?

    So you could tell me about the serpent you see.

    It’s a snake and I don’t really like snakes at all. You know, I can’t really picture a snake talking to Eve either..

    You’re not saying that this serpent didn’t talk, are you?

    Oh? .. No, I guess not. Moses said that THIS serpent talked to Eve.

    I’d just never thought about her being Cain and Abel’s mom.. or how that meant that Cain and his brother would not grow up in Eden. Looking back, I guess I see the serpent talking to Cain’s mom.

    Then I recited the next part from some long-ago memory.

    “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

    And why does Moses’ story tell us that this serpent was cunning?

    Isn’t the serpent asking Eve to tell him something he already knows?

    Indeed he is.

    Is it a good question?

    I thought about it.. A good question? Is it a good question.. good..? good. Why would the serpent ask that?

    Isn’t the serpent trying to trick Eve? I don’t think that could be good. It can’t be a good question like the questions God asks.

    No it can’t.

    And if the serpent’s question is not a good question what kind of question is it?

    The serpent is up to no good. So I guess that makes it an evil question.

    You have already seen what happened to the man and the woman, before Cain killed Abel. Do you recall what happened to the serpent?

    That’s why he has to crawl on his belly?

    It’s much more than that.

    And I will make enemies
    Of you and the woman,
    And of your offspring and her Descendant;
    He shall bruise you on the head,
    And you shall bruise Him on the heel.”

    Genesis 3:15 NASB20 – click here for more versions

    Finally I asked, “Is the Serpent the Hunter?”

    Yes. The Serpent is the Hunter.

    But this cunning hunter of souls so willing to question God appears in other forms, clothing himself in unsuspecting ways to wayward men and unsuspecting women.

    We will meet up with this hunter again…


    the hunter

    The hunter hisses at God

    Pursues his own passion

    Questions glorious Light

    Hissing silently

    Ruling a pit of darkness

    Darkness of stolen light

    Devouring his fallen prey

    Drawing blood from Adam

    DEATH in dry dust

    Stung by sin’s ever-damning curse

    .. therefore, beware.

    “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be as wary as serpents, and as innocent as doves.

    Matthew 10:16 NASB + Caution of the Lord Jesus to his disciples


  • Gardener, Shepherd and Hunter: 4- Tragic Death of a shepherd

    Gardener, Shepherd and Hunter: 4- Tragic Death of a shepherd

    sunrise over earth from space

    I had opened my eyes (just for a moment) and thought that I saw a sunrise from long long ago.. Watching for a long time (it seemed) or maybe for just an instant (I could not tell). I then observed the sun waning beneath the surface of this paradise.

    Tragic DEATH!


    This instant of time quickly reverted into a darkness.. and my eyes (I thought) were not even closed again. I quivered and held my breath (I thought), as an eerie sense of a chaotic scene drew me down beneath the place where I thought I had just stood above the once magnificent paradise.

    So I was no longer filled with any breath of joy at what I had already seen.

    Then a scene planted my mind into a still and horrific place which pierced the ash-like fog into which I had fallen. I knew that this place emerging into the strain of my blinded eyes was not only beyond the garden, but it is beyond the fields where I had just witnessed a contentious conversation between two brothers.

    I looked deeper into the darkness.. and then, I now realize, — beneath it.

    Just then, I remembered my Guide, who I guessed had not only led me to the garden east of Paradise but also to this place. And I remembered straining to hear what the two brothers were saying: Kahyin, the gardener, and Heḇel, the shepherd whose offering had pleased the LORD.

    .. It was only then that a dark and joyless truth wounded my briefly revived heart.

    HE KILLED HIM!


    So it came about in the course of time that Cain [qayin] [Smith {like Moses’ father-in-law}] brought an offering to the LORD from the fruit of the ground.

    Bereishit (Genesis) 4:3 :: קַיִן The same as קַיִן (H7013) The KJV translates Strong’s H7013 in the following manner: spear

    Once again I wanted more knowledge from my Guide about what I had just seen.

    So CAIN, a disgruntled gardener, KILLED his brother, a shepherd?

    You have just witnessed its result, my Guide confirmed.

    So Cain was ALSO the Hunter, wasn’t he?

    No.

    I was wrong already..

    Who then, I wondered as my Guide continued His response.

    He murdered Abel, just as later in your timeline you know that Moses would murder a Hebrew brother.

    WHY? Why did the Lord allow it?

    I plead for the bloodied body I had just seen of the shepherd brother of Cain not even thinking (in my response) of the man Moses had killed.

    I reasoned with my Guide:

    This shepherd, Abel, was a righteous man. AND the LORD even accepted his offering at the same time He rejected what Cain brought Him.

    And logically I added:

    HE could have stopped Abel’s murder.

    Yes, of course the LORD could have prevented Cain from killing Abel.

    AND The Almighty could have prevented the guilty man to whom HE gave this story, Moses, from killing a Hebrew slave when he lived as a prince in Egypt.

    I had no answer..

    You asked why the LORD allowed these things to happen to Cain who mostly lived as a good man trying to please God.


    I thought of Moses (this time)..


    and Joseph in Egypt before their slavery..


    THEN I remembered what my Guide had just asked me an instant ago, “Why would it make any difference to you if one brother’s offering is better than the other’s OR if either brother knows about the offering of the other?

    And I even remembered that David was also a later shepherd, just like Abel, yet like Moses and Cain King David had murdered a man.


    Do you think it would be better for these men to have NO choice in what they do and just have God lead them here and there to do as the Lord their God pleases?

    I began thinking about Cain and Able BOTH being FREE to choose their own actions and reactions in the paradise of God.

    Each of them Slaves!!? — I thought. IF we are NOT FREE to choose wrong, it would make us like slaves of GOD..

    I’m thankful that I am free from slavery, even to GOD.

    I wondered if maybe I shouldn’t have said that out loud.

    Of course you are free to say whatever you would like to me.. and to God.

    And even though you may say anything to any other man you encounter on the earth the LORD does not restrain you, think of those words you cannot hear. You just witnessed the consequences of only one such encounter.

    Now look ahead to right judgment of the LORD when we freely choose to accept His Word.


    sunrise over earth from space
    IN THE BEGINNING…

    For an instant I looked back.. further to the west of the endless line..


    I thought I heard sobbing.. and “I’m so sorry I didn’t raise you right” and “We didn’t want you to know the mistakes we made..” ..and yet more wailing the way I felt over the death of Abel. Adam and Eve loudly lamented all of this.. and the separation of a father and mother from one sinful son: Cain, who had just killed the other son they loved..

    I could only imagine my own father or mother IF I had actually killed any of my siblings.. (or anyone, for that matter).

    “Not only is this tragic death of their son Abel new to them,” my guide pointed out to me, “the impact of DEATH itself has just gripped Adam and Eve — two parents who the LORD had told many years before,

    ‘You shall surely die.’”

    I thought of those times one of my brothers had been MAD at ME… What if it were my blood in that field?



    Then the LORD said to Cain,

    “Where is Abel your brother?”

    And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

    Genesis 4:9 NASB20

    Then He said, “What have you done?

    The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to Me from the ground.

    “Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

    “When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you;

    you will be a wanderer and a drifter on the earth.”

    Genesis 4:12 NASB20

    4:16 וַיֵּצֵא קַיִן מִלִּפְנֵי יְהוָה וַיֵּשֶׁב בְּאֶֽרֶץ־נוֹד קִדְמַת־עֵֽדֶן׃


    קַיִן [

    Once upon a time there was a man named Kahyin.. who brought an offering to the LORD from the fruit of the ground.

    I heard the Voice of my Guide in Hebrew, yet somehow I understood every word.

    I have told you about qayin and heḇel his brother for good reason.

    Now it’s time for me to introduce you to the hunter.

    3:1 וְהַנָּחָשׁ הָיָה עָרוּם מִכֹּל חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל־הָאִשָּׁה אַף כִּֽי־אָמַר אֱלֹהִים לֹא תֹֽאכְלוּ מִכֹּל עֵץ הַגָּֽן׃

    Genesis 3:1 – Masoretic Text [Click this link to meet the Hunter, the first character Moses mentions here]

    The Gardener, the Shepherd and the Hunter

    Roger Harned, Christian Author

  • The Gardener, the Shepherd and the Hunter: a shepherd

    The Gardener, the Shepherd and the Hunter: a shepherd

    Once upon a time there was a man named Kahyin Smith. (His friends called him Cain, a nickname long forgotten since his time near the beginning.)

    Now I know that if you think back to ACT 1, SCENE 1 or most recently SCENE 2 of our story that you might think of Cain in Moses’ story. I mention this not only because we will momentarily continue with ACT !, SCENE 3, but in keeping with our LINE of thought,

    I’d like to ask you a question:

    IN the beginning..

    Do you think that ‘Once upon a time..’ mirrors Moses’ story ‘IN THE BEGINNING’ in some way?

    Please add your ANSWER to a COMMENT at the end of any of these SCENES.

    Continuing with SCENE 3 of our Story:

    Now Abel was a keeper of flocks..

    So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD from the fruit of the ground.

    Abel, on his part also brought an offering, from the firstborn of his flock and from their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering; but for Cain and his offering He had no regard..

    Does Cahyin know that Heḇel made an offering that the LORD accepts while this brother of his worked even harder EVERY DAY as a farmer cultivating the soil full of weeds and thistles, I wondered?

    I struggled to keep my eyes covered to keep out so many pictures of this world. And without me saying a single word, my Guide answered me with a question of his own.

    Why would it make any difference to you if one brother’s offering is better than the other’s OR if either brother knows about the offering of the other?

    Hmmm.. I had not considered that they may not have had just one place to make their offerings. Since Cain worked the farm while Able wanders the fields as a ‘keeper of sheep..’ maybe goats.. and other creatures roam the earth too.., I wondered; then I asked my Guide,

    But even if they worshiped at the same stone altar, how would they know if God accepted either offering? Could both brothers see the LORD?

    Look closer.. What do you see?

    Two men approaching each other from a distance.

    It seems to be the end of a day — twilight — and a stone altar stands at the edge of one field and also near a field — I think it’s wheat — the one coming from a partially cultivated field behind him has an armful of early, small stalks.

    And he seems to have some tinder, like thistles and dry stocks, too. (It must be to start a fire.)

    Do YOU see the LORD?

    I hear a young lamb in the arms of the shepherd as he also approaches the altar of sacrifice.

    I don’t see anyone else.

    .. And do you hear His Voice?

    I looked back on the scene then listened.. But now the scene had quickly progressed and both men had reached the altar.

    I could hear a quick crackling of dry branches and thistles burning away in an instant.. then a low roar of burning fat as the fire brightened where the slain lamb had been laid..

    And a bright smoke rose into the darkness from the sacrifice of the lamb, while the fire faded into coldness where so many thistles and an unripened harvest had been lain so hastily.

    Do you hear His Voice?

    YES!

    The LORD’s Voice sounds in my own hearing like a Fatherly rebuke of a child who has done something he shouldn’t have.

    “Why are you angry? And why is your face gloomy?

    “If you do well, will your face not be cheerful? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door;

    and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

    Genesis 4:6-7 NASB20 – :וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה

    a change of Scene..

    And Cain talked with Abel his brother..

    Genesis 4:8a KJV

    What do you suppose Cain said? (I couldn’t hear his words.)

    AND What words do you think Cain and Abel had in their conversation of our NEXT Scene?


    Synopsis (so far)

    I’m going to have to leave our story right here for now.

    So far: I had discovered that the garden near Eden was not exactly paradise. And you must realize by now that Cain was a Gardener, and just now that his brother Abel was a Shepherd.

    NEXT: We will meet a hunter. (Any guesses who?)

    Don’t forget to COMMENT on Moses’ IN THE BEGINNING compared to ONCE UPON A TIME..

    The Gardener, the Shepherd and the Hunter

    Roger Harned, Christian Author

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