Promotion: my book for Kindle will be free through Labor Day: The Gospel According to Judas

While the Spirit of God is doing this work [of regeneration] in man, man must also be ‘a fellowworker with God;’ he must entertain the Spirit, attend his inspirations, receive his whispers, obey all his motions, invite him farther, and truly renounce all confederacy with his enemy, sin; at no hand suffering any ‘root of bitterness to spring up,’ not allowing to himself any reserve of carnal pleasure, no clandestine lust, no private oppressions, no secret covetousness, no love to this world, that may discompose his duty… When we leave every sin, when we resolve never to return to the chains, when we have no love for the world but such as may be a servant of God; then I account that we are entered into a state of grace.

We remember the odd thing, here, there, no one knows why there triggers in us the memory. I have forgotten important things, I am sure, and recall the exact color of a childhood toy; and this oddness is what we call normal, regular: the exception is the rule. I might think there is some purpose to the whole affair, but what it may be cannot easily be discerned by these senses of mine: the mystery lingers, the peculiar mystery of it, the eccentricity of this unknown. I could guess that such things reflect the nature of the world, if we think on it, and only consider it odd because of how we perceive what is important to us: through these finite eyes. It may be that infinity must reflect upon the limited in eclectic ways if we are to receive the flavor of what is beyond. Or at least, realize what is out there, out there, odd that we might even conceive that it is.

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Sigmar Polke: Audacia

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Press Release

Grand Unified Theory of Life

It comes down to this: you either bet that the world is random and meaningless, or that there is ultimately purpose and meaning to it all. After all, Camus told us that one cannot be a part time nihilist. And methinks in my understanding of this world and the next, that there will be a threshold dealt to every soul, where he/she must decide to double down on either one hand of cards or another, and the dealer will turn over the card that’s been face down this whole time. My money is on the side of meaning, if that was not plain. And I do not suppose that the afterlife is meant for one who cannot decide whether it is all worth it or not. Because that goes a long way in deciding for oneself to make a life worth it or not. This is the true gamble of faith.

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The Gospel According to Judas: A Handbook on Life

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The Gospel According to Judas: A Handbook on Life

I have seen skies that were like the grandest paintings, surreal in their vivid blue, with clouds that seemed to have been shaped by angel wings. Then there were others that were more mundane, some that seemed almost fake, as if the real one were out for cleaning somewhere, and some placeholder poster were filling the space of the masterpiece. It’s just air, though, isn’t it? With the specific chemical mix that scatters the light so that it is the blue that we know? But of all that is of the world, there is nothing more otherworldly than the sky, nothing else that evokes all the kinds of dreams that matter. Even after taking it for granted for years and years, there comes that moment when one looks up and is amazed: why it is that they are called the heavens.

What is wrong with the world in general, is wrong likewise more or less with you and me, and with all human beings; for after all, the world is made up of human beings; and the sin of the world is nothing save the sins of each and all human beings put together; and the world will be renewed and come right again, just as far and no farther, as each human being is renewed and comes right. The only sure method, therefore, of setting the world right, is to begin by setting our own little part of the world right — in a word, setting ourselves right.

i sense the undercurrents building
wonder when the breaking moment comes, or if
all will subside, as if nothing ever were
either way i know that my heart will break
i’ve held the words of unfolding until the time ignites
the fire like brooding at the outskirts of doom
now the wind dreams through the trees
and the momentum of the sorrow throws me
out of orbit and hurtling through the infinite sky
to perceive the darkness born before the world
and the light that forever owes its weightlessness to
i have come to the edge of oblivion to stare
there is no beginning and there is no end
not if you believe: just one drop of courage
and you will find the strength to move that mountain
the miracle in the very blood, the beginning is near

Antonio Puri: Resurrection

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to drop into the lap of love
dance within the secret life of flowers
like angels on the head of a pin
and to have within your grasp a mastery of life
(we give concern to the fashion of ephemeral troubles)
have you not heard? what is the Good News?
the best story wins
and the pieces do fit together
we cut no corners
it’s made to crumble at the edges
what tune is it in the susurrus atmosphere of the Movie?
as i waltz with a burning one
i know, for one, luck is no beggar
i to have fashioned my own very hands
to have been meant to dip in the gravity of it all
my card dropped in her lap
and the story brushes aside all anxious first maneuvers
the best story wins

Our Lord Jesus Christ is also known in the book of Revelation as the Lamb slain at the foundation of the world. Even though this was only two thousand years ago that it happened. One might see that that was the turning point of all history: this is the sacrifice that ended all sacrifice, ended the Age of Iron. And all that that Age entailed. And as Christ was two days in the belly of darkness, below, so did the world enter the dark ages for two thousand years — for a thousand years is as a day to God. We just now are awakening, just now entering the new age, the Age of Gold — itself to last from 30 to 50 thousand years… And only then will come the End of Days…

I like to watch birds drink from fountains, small pools, anywhere there is water after a rain. They drink until they are satisfied, dipping their heads, little shivers to shake off the chill. I find it fascinating. The birds fly off — I never encounter them again. They will probably remember nothing of the drink, not really; I will remember it better than they, hold it closer, for it is not always that I see the birds so sip. Somewhere in me, there is a place I can go where the birds are, dipping their heads in little waters. Somewhere in me, I can believe nothing is wasted, not even the smallest drink of water from the tiniest of birds.

i desire something small and sweet
all these numbers have secret properties and whispers
the demon’s keeper strangely silent
to await my more restless nature to get things done
we mark how we are changed by beauty
we are electric in the purified energy of all sacrifices
now is home calling: i have seen it
the chamber within my imagination where i am free
the structure of love in the sunlight
like a dreaming where the numbers combine strangely
to bring about the beginning of all things
never an afterthought in the supply of days, on and on
where shall justice enter the system?
and permeate the courses of good and evil in truth?
i have followed until the road ended
then i went on my way through the wilderness beyond
i found light and darkness in my walking
blazed a trail in crayon for all the children to follow
i desire something small and sweet
the numbers do add up, i found: i tell you, they know

Only when a man tries to live the divine life can the divine Christ manifest Himself to him. Therefore, the true way for you to find Christ is not to go groping in a thousand books. It is not for you to try evidences about a thousand things that people have believed of Him, but it is for you to undertake so great a life, so devoted a life, so pure a life, so serviceable a life, that you cannot do it except by Christ, and then see whether Christ helps you. See then whether there comes to you the certainty that you are a child of God, and the manifestation of the child of God becomes the most credible, the most certain thing to you in all of history.