Proclaiming God's Glory Through Posts and Short Stories ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
19 Oct 2011 Leave a comment
Only look my way 
And I will love you
Like a whisper is to the shout
Of how Christ always has.
Only reach for me
And I will hold you close
Like a candle is to the furnace
Long kept aflame for you.
Only say the word
And I will lift your name to Heaven
Like one precious note is to His great symphony,
And these just a little like He will
When you say “YES”.
13 Oct 2011 2 Comments
Do you ever doubt your own judgement? Well, I have wondered about allowing that last post. It was, most certainly, meant as a concise articulation of a point of view. But did it alienate any friends and readers? I’m torn between removing it and taking a stand upon it.
These days so many people remain silent out of fear of ‘offending’ others. Many want to be “politically correct”, but there lies the problem – there is hardly anything associated with politics that is correct anymore. It is corrupt, and usually, being politically correct directly contradicts Biblical Truth. Then there is the subject of tolerance. Tolerance should be a good thing, but lately I’ve seen it as just another way to avoid the truth, especially Biblical Truth. And, to compromise can be a very good thing, but compromising oneself only leads to trouble.
So I stand with Chaff (Well done, Chaff) against political greed, against the hunger for political power, against hate — FOR our republic, and for sensible, unselfish, governmental spending, taxation, and economic policies. The Bible teaches that debt is a very bad thing, to be strictly avoided. However, our whole economy is based on debt. Not surprising is it? And not surprising that we’re in trouble!
To be artificially politically correct, or to tolerate concepts and ideas obviously outside of Christian values seems just a way to compromise with “the world”, which Jesus never did, nor did the apostles, nor did the early believers. Thank God!
To stand upon the unshakeable Rock of Christ is the answer to our worldly troubles. Come join me there! Anyone?
05 Oct 2011 14 Comments
Look up! It is the mountain that presides over this site. At 14,259 feet, it is the only “fourteener” in RMNP, the northernmost fourteener in Colorado, and the most prominent landmark for the vast surrounding area.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I climbed Long’s Peak :
Because it is there. (Well, OF COURSE it is there! Sheesh)
Because I can, was my thinking before I knew what it would take. (Well, maybe I can. It’s within the realm of possibility.)
Because it kept looking at me. (I stared at the mountain and it stared back)
Because it is visible to me, day or night, wherever I go. ( O^O )
Because I am getting older fast and wanted to do it while my legs, etc, still work.
Because I wanted to see the top before the beaver-rat eats it. (It is sniffing at it right now. See it on the left slope, near the summit?)
Because it transmits a siren-song in my frequency. (It calls to me)
Because it somehow MADE me do it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Things the attempt required :
Hours of research to determine what I was getting into and what to do once I did.
Good planning. Mental conditioning. Ummm, people die up there …
Good fortune (luck), or blessings. Only 3 out of every 10 climbers who attempt the summit actually make it.
The proper equipment and clothing. Adequate amounts of food and water.
Knowledge of alpine weather. (It is predictably extremely unpredictable. )
Physical conditioning.
Me to hike 6 miles in the dark while gaining nearly 3,500 feet in altitude then climbing a difficult, sometimes highly exposed, 1.5 mile, nearly 1,500 vertical-foot route to the summit. (“exposed” means a mistake results in serious death or injury)
Good timing to be off the summit by noon to avoid lightning, rain or snow-slickened granite.
Me to avoid injury, especially ankle or leg injury.
Me to avoid “summit fever” and be ready to turn back at any point due to adverse weather changes or altitude sickness. (At 14,000 feet only 60% of sea level oxygen is available in each breath)
Climbing wearily and carefully down and somehow hiking back to ‘basecamp’. This is statistically the most dangerous part due to fatigue, exhaustion, weather concerns, and hypoxia.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Success involved this :
19 1/2 grueling, joyful hours “on the mountain”, over 4,891 vertical feet of ascent and later descent in a cold rain, getting “lost” then finding the way again and covering more than 15 miles of trails and climbing routes.
I MADE IT UP AND BACK ! However, I was never alone. I can’t take most of the credit. So many things could have gone wrong, but hardly anything did. What unforeseen things happened? The complete account is forthcoming.
29 Sep 2011 2 Comments
An excerpt from a story I’m writing.
The H.S. says “Don’t wait, post this now!”
So, OK!
“Realizing my foolishness in trying to explain the nearly inexplicable, if I were to try to describe the difficult concept of how the indwelling Holy Spirit of Jesus operates in me, it would go something like this: I am on a trail, hiking toward a glorious peak, a pristine lake, or a hidden green valley, but the trail is full of obstacles and choices, forks and distractions, beauty and fearfully deadly hazards. The few trail markers are easy to miss, but I begin to notice something supernatural happening. Awareness, like seeing movement in the corner of my eye. A shadow, a fleeting image, I see with a new eye, eternal and perfect. An image steps out of my own, going before me. Only a nanosecond ahead. It is like my own image only sharper, brighter, more colorful, perfect. Quicker than a thought, and before the outline can be fully perceived, I step into the form and fill it as it completely filled me only the shortest of moments ago. My course is slightly altered, and adjusted. The Eternal Spirit leads and follows all at once. It helps me and asks for help in one breath, and the Spirit Man responds and follow-leads all in one smooth, ongoing, motion taking both beings, as one, up and down the ever-changing trail in the most effective and joyful way. Together. Not having to chase or be chased, unless playfully. Not like before they met. Nanosec after nanosec. Mile after mile. Parsec after parsec. Together.”
24 Aug 2011 6 Comments
To write what You reveal, dear Sir
Ere long I quit this place
Your plain, Your deep, bright, words to share
As long I walk this space
In stories ripe with metaphor
In poems filled with grace
My joy will be in hearts to stir
Until I see Your face
19 Aug 2011 2 Comments
These ten-thousand gifts
These magnificent mysteries
This unquenched longing
This unlimited grace
Complexly simple, His Love ….
And simply amazing.
This is all I have at this moment. I offer what I have ….
07 Aug 2011 8 Comments
TO MEET YOU THERE
Your creations, oh Lord,
Capture me
Convince me
Confirm You.
Immense mountains
Majesty and mystery
Massive earthrock moving skyward
Magnificence like mercy’s power, Your Prominence,
Your Eminence,
Away and up, I climb to meet You there.
Color – carved canyons
Complex, winding wide
Cut in solid stone, rim to rim
Connecting continuous flowing Truth exposed.
Down in, I climb, to meet You there.
Verdant valleys I find,
Filled full for every need
Verifying You – Your care for me.
Daily, hourly, each moment, I see
Your good, Your kind, Creativity.
Oh, God ! You make me to walk in wonder.
Wonder like a child
Wonder with which I can worship You
Wonder I never want to lose.
And as wonder unwraps faith, my Lord,
Faith shows me farther,
Deeper into unseen wonders
Where Your wondrous glory shines,
Then, through that thin place I climb,
To meet You there.
03 Jul 2011 12 Comments
I like a good paradox: 
It seems counter-intuitive, but the truest, most lasting freedom comes from giving up one’s independence. Sounds wrong, right? What do you think I mean by that? *
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
* Give up being independent from the Lord. Instead, be independent from sin; from the need for large amounts of status, power, and money. Trust and depend on Jesus alone for your freedom, and you will be free indeed; free at last!
Happy 4th of July! God bless you, dear reader, and God bless America!
27 Jun 2011 4 Comments
Seek, my friend, the Son of Man.
Screen the sun, or roast like ham.
The Son can heal and save you if you ask.
The sun can peel and kill you if you bask.
Life or death upon demand.
Choose life and seek the Son of Man.
By C. Rantley (My first attempt at a pome. Hope y’all like it. Sincerely, Cousin Chaff)
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
26 May 2011 5 Comments
Chaff Rantley, back agin.
Okay, this here bloggin’, as my cuz calls it, aint quite as easy as I thawt.
I had to study up on rapture acuz that word aint in the Bible thet I can find at all, no way. Thats why I got corn-fused. Read this what Paul told them Thessalonianses–
15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17
Near as I can figger, thets what ‘the rapture’ means — being snatched up into the air by angels and took to Heaven straightaway! Well I’m all fer that I caint hardly wait! But as fer some guy named Harold trying to tell us zackly when itll happen I have this to say to him—
36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,[f] but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. 42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. Matthew 24: 36-44
My sweet wife showed me howta do thet, thanks Hun and she dont want her name in public so I wont but how do you like that! JESUS said that and I believe HIM and not some Harold dude who thinks he has some inside knowin about some secret code. Guess we still should forgive him – he shore dont know what hes doin……………………. I still think he wants to go camping.
Chaff
04 May 2011 8 Comments
Despite my seeming cynicism about the ‘royal wedding’ I have nothing against marriages. (Except maybe the casual kind, the selfish, loveless, or meaningless/vain kinds) In fact, I’m rooting for Kate and William to be in love and married together forever, and to be the shining example of everything God intended marriage to be. I’m rooting for all traditional (no, I’ve no time for that subject) marriages everywhere to be all that God meant them and wants them to be. I pray that couples will keep Christ the center of their marriages and their lives. I pray that they make their vows in all sincerity and call upon the Holy Spirit to help keep them. The wedding, however has little to do with any of the above except to provide special circumstances in which to make sacred promises to God and to one another. The obsession with all the worldly trappings surrounding the wedding have little to do with the success of the resulting marriage. If as much thought, time, planning, dreaming, and praying were applied to the actual relationship, to loving the other person involved, to the realities of a great marriage, then the wedding would become secondary instead of the other way around. I’m just saying……..
In the end, when Christ comes to “marry” His beloved bride, His Church, the Royal Wedding will be wonderful, but the marriage will be forever spectacular. I’m out of time. Dear readers please supply the appropriate verses – you’re so good at it!
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
28 Apr 2011 6 Comments
Thanks, Kimmie at Journeytoepiphany for suggesting today’s Brite post! All morning I have been hearing how Kate and William, the bride and groom in the upcoming royal wedding (royal pain in the neck to some, hehe, – and a royal pain in England’s Pocketbook, yikes) are leaving the ‘obey‘ out of their vows. Hopefully they know that to love someone is to want to obey them, 
therefore obedience doesn’t have to be promised, but is taken as a given. I still see it as a sign of trouble. The cumulative worldview is crumbling. Love and obedience are being snowplowed to the wayside to make room for selfishness and rebelliousness.
And: Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. John 14:23
“I can guarantee this truth: Whoever obeys what I say will never see death.” John 8:51
Want to obey? These are essential: Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. Matt 22:37 And: The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” Mark 12:31
Commanded to Love! Implored to obey! How can we not give Him our best shot?!
14 Apr 2011 2 Comments
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5
Way beyond my understanding.
All i know is
It was a miracle
And the miracle was a gift.
Delivered to crumbling doorstep
Outside my sagging door locked tight
Nailed shut.
Yet breached,
It sat inside on rotting floor
Shining to be opened.
To be believed past unbelief
By miracle, not my work.
Gift
It is salvation wrapped in grace undeserved.
The gift of faith to see hope once unseen.
A new heart unchained
Full with compassion
And repentance like a switching wind.
Heart to feel abundant love long unfelt
And eyes to see as i am seen
Then others too, the same.
And mercy, charity, a call to pray
A heart to sing, a heart to worship,
Hands to raise.
All unwrapped and taken out,
When gift, upon gift, inside gift, given
Then took away all fears and doubts
Healed my aching soul complete
And full and whole and more and more
A heart to tell of gifts and Glory
Of His Great Love,
And gratitude, a heart of thanks,
I thank you JESUS, thank you LORD!
That You should care for me,
To give me gifts,
Rebuild my house,
To give Yourself.
Miracles beyond my full understanding.
But nothing is beyond Yours!
31 Mar 2011 Leave a comment
* * * *
* * *
* *
!
Hallelujah!!!
Have I found some of my defining verses?
My life statement?
My heart’s fondest song?
There are so many to choose from,
but I think this one was chosen for me.
May I quote it for you?
OK, I will.
Psalm 57:7-11 :
“My heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast;
I will sing and make music.
Awake, my soul !
Awake, harp and lyre !
I will awaken the dawn.
I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
I will sing of You among the people.
For great is Your love reaching to the heavens;
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
Let Your glory be over all the earth.”
Ohhh,
I pause,
breathless in absolute wonder of it . . .
Do you have a Bible verse, or set of verses that help to define your life,
or are your heart’s fondest song?
Please share them with all of us.
We will be blessed to hear them!
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
12 Mar 2011 Leave a comment
Not long before I took my first step of real faith, my Lord sent me a messenger who graciously gave me this quotation:
John Greenleaf Whittier
The ideas I found in that sentence so resonated in me that it was instrumental in my taking the first steps of faith.
I can only hope that this message will have that same effect on any special someone who may be staring into the void.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
08 Mar 2011 1 Comment
There aren’t many who can write and sing of God’s glory with more heart than Keith and Kristyn Getty. Many thanks to you both, and thank you to Bob Marshall, for uploading this beautiful video. Hallelujah!
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
02 Mar 2011 Leave a comment
As a self-proclaimed atheist/agnostic, the last thing I would have thought I would catch myself doing was to pray. Yet, circumstances had changed. I had become aware of a friend who desperately needed help. I really wanted to give aid, but helping was circumstantially impossible. That may have been one of my first experiences with sincere, unconditional compassion.
There was nothing I could do. Or was there? As the situation got worse for my friend, I got desperate. There remained only one thing I could think of that I could do, and that was to beg to the God, of whom I didn’t acknowledge the existence, if indeed He existed at all, for help. Now, how’s that for a sentence? Anyway, I went out on a limb with my philosophical principles and prayed, although, at that time, I refused to call it praying. It went something like this:
Desperately, I Prayed: “God, are you real? Are you there? Some people think you are, and they say you hear when people talk to you. If you are listening, can you prove it? Would you please, please help my friend?” I felt nothing except a vague sense of relief that I had exhausted the last possible solution.
And, in a short time, He showed up!
It wasn’t long before the situation improved dramatically. It dawned on me that only God could have worked it out in this precise and exact way! It was NOT coincidence nor superstition! Those arguments – my old crutches – could no longer be applied. I knew it had to be Him! I could feel the truth being made manifest in my heart. He was saying “Yes, it’s Me, yes, I am here, I Am!” Then He made sure that I knew it was Him through miraculous signs and wonders keyed just for me for the next several weeks. Actually, He has never stopped!
I had opened the door a crack and He stepped in. I am certain that the Holy Spirit was responsible for helping with my decisions, as well as holding off the enemy until I could stand on my own. That’s not to say I can do much of anything on my own, for I rely on His strength every day. On my own efforts, I might never have offered that first prayer.
Six years later, I know that a prayer in behalf of someone else is called ” intercessory prayer”. “Standing in the gap” in sincere, unconditional prayer for others is important. So is ‘the sinner’s prayer’ – an admission of guilt and a plea for mercy . So are prayers of praise and of thanksgiving. But that one short, confused, desperate prayer was integral in leading to my redemption, salvation, rebirth, and transformation. Thank you Jesus!
And thanks be to God that in desperation, I prayed.
“In desperate prayer for someone else,
I brought the Lord unto myself.”
03-02-2011
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
25 Feb 2011 Leave a comment
Todays foray into the world of rhyme:
“In desperate prayer for someone else,
I brought the Lord unto myself.”
I so hope that i authored this and didn’t unwittingly and unintentionally steal it. Sometimes one incorporates, subconsciously, obscure words one has seen, into one’s own thought processes. Has anyone out there heard or seen it before? I’m pretty sure it came from me because i worked on it! If i didn’t originate it, maybe God wanted me to bring it back because it is an important concept. I can’t find it after much searching on the Net. I intend to post more on this subject, but for now, ponder the deep truth embedded in those two simple lines. Read more, here.
21 Feb 2011 Leave a comment
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same. ( C. S. Lewis, from Mere Christianity)
No wonder he is many people’s favorite author. Besides God, (of course) he is mine.
This is from the website cslewisreview.org which is a worthwhile place to visit.
Wait, never alone!
~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gloryteller 