Month: August 2010

Flash Fiction

Flash Fiction: Rejecting the Stereotype

Karen

writing prompt: Blogging Conferences

“Can I have your autograph?”

Tara looked at the woman by her side and swallowed back a smile. She was getting used to her Internet fame, but it didn’t necessarily mean she liked it. She was still amazed that people even read her writing – all she did was talk about the day-to-day activities of the publishing world.

“Better yet,” she said with a warm smile, “let’s take a picture together.” She placed an arm around the woman’s shoulders and offered a smile to her friend taking their picture.

“Oh thank you so much! I read your blog every day and I can’t tell you how much it’s helped me!”

“I’m so glad,” Tara said, and she meant it. She truly enjoyed connecting with her readers.

The woman walked away with her small pack of friends, giggling excitedly.

“Ugh. That gets so old, doesn’t it?”

Tara stiffened and turned to face yet another popular blogger. She didn’t like her for she had seen, first hand, how utterly hateful she could be with people.

“Let’s sit down, shall we?” Tara said and began to guide the group to a nearby table.

She noted a lone woman, standing near the entrance to the room, looking forlorn and lost.

“We have an empty space, let’s invite her over,” Tara said, with a nod toward the door.

“Um, no,” the woman snickered to the table at large.

“Fine,” Tara said. “Then I’ll go to her. Enjoy your lunch, ladies.”

It felt good to walk away.

_______________________________

null

Fiction under 250 words.

(If you played along, please feel free to post your link!)

Cruise 10, Vacations

Vacation 2010: Coming Home

Karen


Alas, all good things must come to an end.

Whenever you’re on a cruise, the night before you dock, you’re supposed to pack all of your things (except for the things you’ll need the next morning, like clothes, makeup, etc), and put your bags outside your cabin door. The stewards then take your bags down to cargo, and give you a number. When we dock the next morning, they will unload your bags onto the pier.

We reached New York at 7:30 in the morning, but Kevin and I were up at 6:00 taking showers and getting ready to leave our cabin.

They want everyone out of their cabins by 8:30 so they have time to clean them and prepare them for the next cruise.

We woke the boys up at 7:00 so they could take their showers and Kevin and I went up to the Promenade deck to eat breakfast. When the boys were ready to leave their cabin, they called me and together we went through to make sure they hadn’t left anything behind.

The boys kept their carry on bags, so each of them was responsible for their clothes. I had stuffed our dirty clothes into a plastic bag, and put everything else into my backpack.

This is probably my least favorite part of the cruise experience – departing the ship. It’s quite a process and it takes a long time, everyone has to be patient. (Kevin compares it to being in prison, they won’t allow you to leave and you can’t really go anywhere on the ship other than the Promenade deck to 1. stay out of the way of the people leaving the boat and 2. to stay out of the way of the crew so they can clean).

Everyone has to sit around and wait for their number to be called. This is an efficient way to make sure everyone gets off in an orderly fashion.

Our number was 19.

We ended up leaving the boat about 9:00, which was actually a little sooner than I thought it would be. But the cruise people have this down to a science and as long as people cooperate, it goes pretty quickly.

We left the boat, went through customs, found our bay number, and I unloaded the extra crap from my backpack into our luggage. I was a little stressed because I didn’t have a scale with me, so I had no way of knowing if I was keeping the weight under 50 pounds, but we guesstimated and did the best we could.

Then we walked out onto the sidewalk and waited for a taxi.

Along with about 500 other people.

It was pure chaos. There were no taxis waiting and there were literally hundreds of people needing one. Kevin noticed a woman handing out tickets and though we had no idea what they were for or why we might need one, he took one anyway.

Thank goodness.

As taxis pulled up, the woman called out the numbers. They set it up this way so people wouldn’t push and shove their way to a taxi whenever one was available (though some people took advantage of the pure chaos and stole someone else’s taxi anyway. Honestly, what is wrong with people?)

I was so focused on trying to hear the woman as she called out the numbers and trying to get her attention so she wouldn’t bypass our number that I nearly forgot one of our bags! Fortunately, I remembered at the last minute and then had trouble locating it, suddenly convinced that someone had stolen it. Luckily, I located it and didn’t have to make the taxi driver wait too long.

Our taxi was a Ford Escape Hybrid. Only, the man already had a huge bag in the back (his own) and I was sure we were going to have to give up that taxi because there simply wasn’t enough room for our four bags, his bag, the walker and all four of us. However, somehow, he got all of our stuff in and the boys and I climbed into the back, while Kevin rode up front with him.

The boys and I had to hold Kevin’s walker in our lap.

When the taxi driver learned that we needed to go to the Newark Airport, he wasn’t too happy about it. But, once we established how much it was going to cost (with tolls), we were on our way.

The traffic was terrible, as you can well imagine. There was a lot of sudden stops, hard gos and jerky turns. By the time we made it to the airport, me and the boys were on the verge of throwing up. It was an uncomfortable and long ride but we made it without incident and checked in. Kevin sailed through security, we located our gate, bought some sandwiches -(which were WAY over priced, of course – what are you going to do? Leave??), and sat down to wait.

(Side note: I miscalculated the weight and had to step aside so I could open our bags and shuffle crap around in order to make the 50 pounds per bag weight limit. That was a little stressful but luckily we got the poundage right the first time and didn’t have to pull the bags off the scales and go through stuff a second time).

When we saw how many people were on the pier waiting for taxis, I had been afraid that we would cut it pretty close as far as making our 2:10 flight, but when we arrived at the airport, we still had three hours to wait, so we purchased WiFi, the boys dug out their DS’s and we settled in to wait.

Our flight time came and went – still no plane. The board said it was delayed about thirty minutes. I started stressing about missing our connecting flight in Chicago.

All Jazz wanted to do was sleep. He was pooped.
However, the plane showed up about ten minutes later and we quickly boarded. It was packed – every seat was taken.

I started to relax. Great! We were on our way, we would surely make our connecting flight now. We had to wait a bit on the runway for our turn, but overall, it wasn’t that bad, we were probably in a lot better shape than if we had tried to fly out of LaGuardia.

We made it to Chicago. Luckily, our gate was only a few gates down from where we came into Chicago so we didn’t have far to walk. Even though Kevin was doing well, he was tired and I was afraid our gate would be five miles away.

And it was a good thing our gate was close, because no sooner had we scarfed down the rest of the sandwiches we had bought in Newark when they called to board our plane. If we had been delayed even fifteen more minutes in Newark, we would have missed our connecting flight.

Because a series of thunderstorms had blown through Chicago earlier that day, it caused all of the schedules to be delayed so that by the time they were cleared to take off, there were literally a hundred planes waiting. We had to actually taxi around the airport before we could get in line for takeoff.

These planes behind us? All waiting to take off. It was quite a sight!

One thing about the Chicago airport – there is one section where the planes literally taxi over a bridge over the highway to reach the take off runway. It’s really a bizarre feeling – like we’re in a giant car instead of a plane.

Dude did really well on the flights. He’s NOT a big fan of flying and actually hyperventilated on past flights. And even though he was nervous this go-around, he wasn’t AS nervous and I was really glad to see that – he’s getting more used to flying. This in turn, makes flying a little easier for me for though I would never tell him this, his nervousness makes ME nervous and though I’m not a big fan of flying myself, I’m not scared of it and would like to relax enough so that I can read or something.

At any rate, we got home about thirty minutes after we were scheduled to and as we were walking out of the secure area, we saw Kevin’s older sister waiting for us. She took pictures of us and wanted to know how our trip was. Even though it was really sweet of her to come to the airport, I wish she hadn’t. We were all so tired by then all we wanted to do was get home and go to bed.

And that’s it! That is our 2010 family vacation in a nutshell (HA!). Thanks for bearing with me. I know it was quite a process to reach this point, but I wanted to write all of this stuff down before I forgot it so … now it’s done.

And I’m done. It’s time to focus my energies on bigger and better things.

Peace out!

Monday Morning Meme

Monday Morning Meme – August 9, 2010

Karen

It’s back!!

I don’t know if you remember this meme or not, but I thought I’d bring it back to try and give people something to blog about on Mondays. Please join in!

All you have to do is answer the questions below either in the comment section, or on your blog. And elaborate! Make these questions show your unique and special personalities. This meme entry will post at 12:01 every Monday morning and will be the first postentry listed on WFK all day Monday. (This is an all-day Monday meme, so please, play all day!)

Monday Morning Meme at writefromkaren.com

August 9th Questions:

1. Name a movie that moved you.

2. What’s guaranteed to make you roll your eyes?

3. What keeps you up at night?

4. Could you live without the internet for a month? How long have you gone without the internet? How did you handle it?

5. Bonus: Write a caption, poem or short story inspired by this picture:

Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to enter your link and view the entire list of entered links…

Want to see next week’s questions? Your wish is my command.

Day-By-Day

Day-By-Day

Karen

The small, insignificant, day-by-day things that happen in my life.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

I just finished reading “A Walk to Remember” by Nicholas Sparks. I have mixed feelings about Sparks’ writing. There is no question that he writes emotional stories – I can’t recall a time I’ve ever read a story of his and didn’t cry, but his writing is so simplistic, it’s almost insulting. I’m reading “The Scent of Scandal” by Carole Matthews now. Matthews is pretty entertaining’ I’m looking forward to it.

I have a skinned knee. Do you know how embarrassing it is, a grown woman, to walk around with a big, ugly scab on her knee? Here’s what happened: Kevin removed the ramp to his office and stupid me forgot that little tidbit. I was carrying my computer chair into his office for his boss (who comes over twice a week, though that should change now that Kevin is driving – they are going out to lunch tomorrow) so he could use it while talking to Kevin and since you have to step down into Kevin’s office (he converted our screen-in back porch), I put my foot out there fully expecting to step on a ramp, only the ramp was gone and I stepped into nothingness, lost my footing, and fell onto the concrete floor (that has been covered with indoor/outdoor carpeting because we’re fancy like that), and went to my knees. I had a pretty nasty rug burn on my knee and the side of my foot. I suppose I should be thankful that I didn’t break a bone.

Every morning, at 9:30 in the morning, I go into Dude’s room to wake him up. I turn his fan off, pull the covers off his skinny body and then turn his clock radio on – to an old-time gospel station. I laugh because the music is quite annoying to begin with, I can’t imagine waking up to it. And judging by Dude’s reaction each morning, he’s not too thrilled about waking up to it either.

I bought an external hard drive today. I got it at Wal-Mart – 320 gigabytes for $60 bucks. And it’s purple. I have a purple external hard drive. That makes me happy, for some odd reason. (I’m also determined to buy a pink laptop next time, just you watch me). I can’t wait to use it. I need it because I’m constantly making backups and burning DVD’s drives me nuts. I have two DVD cases full of backups. Though I will continue to make DVD backups, with an external hard drive, I won’t have to make them quite as often. And it’s purple, I mentioned that part, right? I’m such a geek.

~*~*~*~*~

Thursday, August 5, 2010

I reformatted my laptop today. I both love and hate reformatting. On one hand, it’s like a BRAND NEW COMPUTER! when I’m finished. On the other hand, it TAKES NEARLY ALL DAY to wait while it updates and installs things. *sigh* Reformatting my laptop is a heck of a lot easier to do than my personal computer. The Internet, for example, practically installs itself. Since it’s WiFi, it just looks for WiFi hotspots and that’s it. (Well, I had to put our WEP code in, but you know what I mean). Whereas my personal computer, I have to go to “My Network Places”, set up the workgroup blah blah blah. But I mentioned it’s like having a brand new computer when it’s all said and done, right? (I just transferred my entire iTunes library over and the whole process was smooth as butta).

I took the boys to buy school supplies today. They both love those trappers that have the handles on the outside. It always amuses me whenever I see Dude walking to my car after school, carrying it like a briefcase. Hey, if it helps him take school a bit more seriously, then I’m all for it. I’ll gladly fork over the $20 bucks needed to buy the thing. (*gulp*) We didn’t buy much else. When your kids are in high school, the school supply list consists of trapper, paper and pencils, and that’s about it.

We headed to Shoe Carnival afterward. I actually dislike Shoe Carnival because of the non-stop jabbering about hot deals and so forth on the intercom, it all seems so cheap and tacky, but they have the buy one, get one half price thing and since I have to buy two pairs of sneakers, I usually save about $30 bucks going there. Jazz found his pair right off the bat. Dude took about thirty minutes to finally decide. I have made so many of Dude’s decisions for him when he was growing up, he has sort of gotten into the habit of stepping back and letting me decide on stuff. I don’t do that any more. I sat down in a chair, crossed my legs and simply said, “Let me know when you’ve picked something.” He kept gravitating toward a pair that he really liked, only the tongue is a bit rough around the edges and I’m concerned they will end up rubbing the top of his feet raw. We went ahead and bought them, but I have a feeling we’ll be monkey rigging those things in the near future.

I wish I could say the boys and I had a good time today, but I would be lying. I always look forward to doing things like this with them and I’m always disappointed. They both HATE to shop and what can I expect? They’re teenage boys, not girls, it’s sort of in their nature to hate it. Plus, we’re getting ready for school, and if I haven’t shared with you all, my boys LOATHE school. (Well except for Jazz, he likes it only because of band).

I followed a twitter link today to a really bizarre and disturbing news story. It was one of those stranger than truth stories and I loved it. So much, in fact, that I’m using the idea for my National Novel Writing Month story in November. It feels really good to already have something in mind for that writing project. It will be my sixth time participating in the program. I’m glutton for punishment, apparently.

~*~*~*~*~

Friday, August 6, 2010

What an emotional roller coaster day.

The day started out pretty quiet. I spent most of it on my laptop, installing my programs, tweaking the settings so that it was exactly how I wanted it. I also ran across a really nifty (and FREE) writing program called yWriter. I haven’t had a chance to really dig into it yet, but I plan to after I finish this entry.

Kevin and I had just gotten back from the UPS store (he needed to have a document notarized) when I got an email from my mom – my grandmother passed away this morning. (My dad’s mom).

We all knew it was just a matter of time, she’s been suffering from Alzheimer’s and Dementia for a number of years, but still, it was shocking. I took a moment to absorb it before telling Kevin and the boys. Jazz could see I was pretty upset and he hugged me.

“It’s okay, mom.”

That somehow made it worse, though I appreciated his kindness. I’ve been crying off and on all day. I have so many regrets when it comes to my grandparents (I wrote about those regrets) so I’m sad that she’s gone, I’m sad that she suffered so much these past years and I’m sad for my missed opportunity, an opportunity I blew, on my own and all by myself.

I wanted to call my dad, but I wasn’t sure he would feel up to talking. I think my mom is on vacation this week on account of the fair, so hopefully she’s with him. It bothers me to think he might be home alone. I can’t imagine how my grandfather is coping right now.

Her funeral will likely be on Monday, though no definite plans have been made at this time. Jazz will be at band camp, but Dude should be there with us. It will be Dude’s first funeral.

A couple of Dude’s friends dropped by today, but Dude wouldn’t let me answer the door. He didn’t want to see them. When I pressed him as to why, he told me that when he spent the night over at his buddy’s house a few months back, they smoked pot. He said they offered him some and he refused – I believe him.

It doesn’t bother me so much that he was exposed to that, it was bound to happen sooner or later, and I’m proud of him for refusing to succumb to peer pressure, but it bothers me that he held that in all this time. We’ve always told the boys that if they ever found themselves in an uncomfortable situation with their friends to call us – no questions asked. No lectures, no explanations needed; we would talk about stuff later. So the fact that he didn’t call and stuck around all night sort of bothers me. I hope he wasn’t too scared to call us, and I hope he’s not too scared to call us in the future, if it happens again. (Which it probably won’t with these particular friends. Not only does he not wish to be friends with them anymore, I’m not sure we would allow him to hang out with them anymore).

So, my emotions have been all over the board today – sadness, regret, grief, surprise, shock, worry, anxiety, a touch of anger. I’m ready for this day to end.

~*~*~*~*~

Saturday, August 7, 2010

It was a quiet day. I battled yet another caffeine headache; I seem to be getting a lot of those lately. I have to ration my caffeine intake. I have one cup of coffee in the morning and then every other afternoon I have either half a cup of warmed left-over coffee, or a Red Bull. If I drink too much caffeine in the afternoon, I inevitably get a headache that lasts for DAYS. It’s annoying. I found that if I drink more than 8 ounces of Red Bull, that seems to trigger these headaches, too. Excedrin Migraine usually knocks these headaches out of the park, but they have aspirin in them, which does strange things to me, so I have to ration how much I take of that, as well. I’m complicated, what can I say?

Nephew came by and mowed our grass today. We’ve been paying him to come mow our grass every week until Kevin can get back on his feet. I feel a little weird with this arrangement considering we have two teenage boys who could do that job, but Kevin likes how J mows our grass and he doesn’t feel like fighting with the boys on making them do it right. (Though it would be good for them, but it’s his decision).

Found out when my grandmother’s funeral is: Tuesday. My mother-in-law wanted to go, but I feel uncomfortable with that. I know her heart is in the right place (wanting to support me), but she didn’t know my grandmother and I’m going to have my hands full with keeping my own emotions in check while trying to offer support to the rest of my family. I just don’t have the energy to try and put on airs in front of her. She’s a sweet lady and I appreciate the offer, though.

We bought an external hard drive for Kevin. He wants to get rid of an extra computer in his office. In fact, he wants to simplify our lives, period. With his grandmother’s death, my grandmother’s death and his accident, his entire view on life in general has changed. He doesn’t want to leave a lot of crap behind for our sons to sort through. We’re also going to set up our wills and start a payment plan on plots of land for our burial. I know that all sounds morbid, and I’m not exactly comfortable talking about such issues, but they are real-life issues that need to be taken care of. You just never know when life will throw you a curve ball.

~*~*~*~*~

I’ve been using Oh Life to record my daily events. I love it because they send you an email at 8:00 p.m. every night asking you how your day went. You reply to the email and it automatically posts to your Oh Life account. I’ve been wanting to record the day-to-day happenings in my life because, well, I forget this stuff. I realize it may be pretty boring and worthless to you all out there, but to me? They’re precious moments.

These entries are raw, immediate and from the heart. You can expect to see these updates every Wednesday and Sunday (or thereabouts)

Thanks for reading.

Abundant Life

Teaching: Civil Government: God’s Design for Peace and Justice

Karen

Every Sunday I provide videos and valuable links to the Truth or Tradition teachings. We’ve been following the Truth or Tradition teachings for many years now and they have truly blessed our family. We have found peace and happiness through our beliefs and we walk confidently for God. My hope, by passing on this information to you, is that what you find here, or on the Truth or Tradition website, will guide you to a better, more blessed and abundant life.

If you would like to read my views on religion and how we got started with the ministry, you can read this.

Let’s get started:

(Video: Part One of Six)
Vodpod videos no longer available.
(RSS Readers, there is a video. Please click over to watch).

Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, peace, justice, and security have been very scarce upon this earth. Adam and Eve had not been out of Eden for long when “Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him” (Gen. 4:8). Six thousand years later, this earth is still a very dangerous place. The Bible tells us that it will remain so until Christ’s Millennial Kingdom comes, when the promise of Isaiah is fulfilled.

Isaiah 32:18
My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.

So, is peace and justice now impossible? Has God made no provision for security in society until Christ’s Kingdom comes? The answer to both is no. Since Genesis 9:6, God has commanded that the safety and security of the people in a society is the responsibility of the government of that society. After the Flood, God commanded Noah and his descendents to govern themselves and protect themselves from evil people. This was the birth of civil governments that have the God-given authority to protect the innocent by punishing evildoers, up to and including the death of those who are guilty of capital crimes.

But, in general, mankind has abysmally failed to obey God and strictly enforce the civil law modeled in the Bible. Societies have often been extremely dangerous places, wherein the average person becomes tempted to act as “judge and jury” and avenge himself when he is threatened or wronged. But, at best, vigilante action fixes the problem only temporarily, and eventually leads to the ruin of the society.

Understanding and supporting God’s design for social order is the better path to take. In John 19:11a, Jesus recognizes Pilate’s godly role as civil governor, and affirms God’s hand in the design (“You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above…”). Romans 12:17-13:7 simply reaffirms for the Christian Church the authority of civil government and the need to honor that authority and be subject to it. It reminds us that the way to live in peace in this world is not to avenge ourselves, but rather to give place to the wrath of God as it is executed by civil authority.

Throughout Church history, many Christians have not believed that Romans 12:17-13:7 refers to civil authorities. They point to the occasional atrocities of the civil governments that have existed through the ages, and assert that this section of Romans must be speaking about authorities in the Church. This article has two purposes, to show that Romans 12:17-13:7 refers to civil government, not Church government, and to establish from God’s Word that God’s design is for civil government to punish evildoers so that the general population can live peaceful and secure lives.

Because Romans 13:1-7 is often taken out of context, we must begin our exegesis at Romans 12:17. It is unfortunate that the translators placed a chapter break (Ch. 13) right in the middle of this subject, because it makes it harder for the reader to see the continuation of the subject matter from Chapter 12. Chapters were not part of the original God-breathed Word. Major breaks, chapters and paragraphs were added to the text through the ages, and the chapter breaks that appear in modern Bibles are from the 1200s AD. Although the translators usually appropriately marked the subject changes with chapter breaks, Romans 13 is one they misplaced (Gen. 2 and Isa. 53 are other examples). The actual context begins in Romans 12:17. Christians are exhorted to not avenge evil with evil, but as much as possible to live in peace with everyone and to “give place unto [God’s] wrath” (12:19). (Note: we will be using the King James Version unless otherwise indicated).

Romans 12:17-21
(17) Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
(18) If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
(19) Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto [God’s] wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
(20) Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
(21) Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

Several things immediately become clear from these verses. First, they contain instruction regarding proper Christian behavior (v. 17). Second, they refer to proper Christian behavior toward non-Christians as well as Christians. How do we know this? By asking the question, “If the words ‘no man,’ and ‘all men’ used in verses 17 and 18 refer only to Christians, would the verses still make sense in light of the rest of Scripture?” In other words, “no man” and “all men” must refer to some group of people. If it does not refer to all human beings, then to whom does it refer? “Christians” would be the probable answer (and the only answer if you are trying to make the case that Romans 13 is dealing with the internal affairs of the Church). Therefore we will see if it makes sense for the “all men” to refer to Christians (our comments are in italics).

Romans 12:17 and 18
(17) Recompense to no “Christian” man evil for evil (This does not make sense, because it would be implying that it might be okay to return evil to a non-Christian). Provide things honest in the sight of all “Christians” (It is okay to be dishonest to non-Christians?).
(18) If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all “Christians” (Is it okay to return evil to a non-Christian? Christ taught that we should love even our enemies).

It is readily apparent that the uses of the word “all” in these verses do not refer to a subgroup of human beings. God never wants us to do evil to anyone (Rom. 12:21; 1 Cor. 13:5; 2 Cor. 13:7, and especially 1 Thess. 5:15). We can properly conclude that the section immediately preceding Romans 13 refers to proper Christian behavior toward all people, and it is speaking of living in peace with them. In light of that, we need to reexamine verses 18 and 19.

Romans 12:18 and 19
(18) If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
(19) Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

The Bible and history both testify that Christians (and non-Christians) have been victimized by both non-Christians and unscrupulous Christians (any survey of prison populations will show clearly that a significant percent of those incarcerated are professing Christians). How is the godly Christian supposed to protect himself from these evil people? How is he supposed to “live in peace” with them? By avenging himself? No, because Romans 12:19 says, “avenge not yourselves.” Can godly Christians get protection from these evil people by calling on the authorities in the Church? Hardly.

Church authorities have only “charismatic influence,” and lack the ability to protect the godly from the ungodly. This is just as true today as it was 2,000 years ago. Anyone who has been in the pastorate knows that if a Christian under his or her care is assaulted, raped, robbed, or worse, the best the pastor can do is comfort the victim and pray for justice. That is not very helpful to the one who wants a way to live in peace in our evil society. There has to be a satisfying answer to the question, “How can a Christian live in peace with evil people without protecting himself by avenging himself?”

The satisfying answer we need, and the way a Christian can live in an evil society without avenging himself, is by “giving place unto [God’s] wrath.” That sounds good, but what does it mean? Does it mean that a Christian who has been horribly wronged should simply wait until God strikes the wicked person dead or punishes him in some lesser way, such as giving him the measles or perhaps breaking his car or computer? No, because God does not work that way. God is not actively punishing criminals on the earth today. [1] In both the Old and New Testaments, God commands people to punish criminals as the agent of His wrath. [2]

It is humans who execute criminals (Exod. 21:12-17), levy fines (Exod. 22:2-6), inflict corporal punishments such as beatings (Deut. 25:2), and who build and incarcerate others in jails (Gen. 39:20). What makes punishment “the wrath of God” is not that God directly does the punishing, but that it is carried out according to His will and laws. The phrase “wrath of the king” means the king is directly doing the punishing. The phrase “the wrath of the king” appears three times in the Bible (Esther 2:1; Prov. 16:14; Heb. 11:27), and it is clear that the king did not directly execute his wrath. Rather, the king gives commands, which are carried out by his servants, his army, etc. So when the king’s army carries out the will of the king, the action is called “the wrath of the king,” and when the will of God is carried out by people against those who oppose God’s laws, that is “the wrath of God.”

Some have argued that the wrath of God in Romans 12:19 is the wrath that sinners will face at the Final Judgment. However, that belief is even less satisfying to those who want peace here and now than believing that God will directly deal in this life with evildoers. There will be wrath from God at the Final Judgment, but that is not the wrath that is being spoken of in this context, as is seen by the direct reference in 13:4b to someone or something being the one to execute God’s wrath now (“he is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer” NIV). Yes, there will be a Final Judgment, but that will not keep society safe now, or help Christians deal with the injustices of this life and live at peace with all men.

In this context, we should expect to see a concrete way that Christians can live peaceably in this evil world, a way that the wrath of God can be wielded upon those who unlawfully and immorally afflict others. That way of peace is through civil government, and that is exactly what is set forth in the opening verses of Romans 13.

You can read the rest of the article here.

If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about God’s wonderful message, please visit the Truth or Tradition website. You can also keep track of the ministry through their Facebook page, their YouTube Channel, or follow them on Twitter.

Thanks for reading.

(Comments have been turned off. The information is here to inform and bless you. God granted you the gift of free will – take it or leave it).

More from Write From Karen

Cruise 10, Halifax, Vacations

Vacation 2010: Halifax, Nova Scotia

Karen

Halifax is steeped in history: from the Halifax explosion to most notably, (or in our opinion at least), the 300 people from the Titanic who are buried there.

But let’s back up a bit:

Once again, we opted for the more relaxed and easy shore excursion with the Halifax City Tour. It was on a huge tour bus so Kevin was comfortable and we saw much more of the city than we would have normally. Our tour guide was dressed in a kilt and frequently sighed in either boredom or exasperation as he told us about the history of his fair city.

It was both amusing and annoying.

We toyed with the idea of taking a shore excursion that included the city and admission to two of their popular museums, the Martime Museum of the Atlantic and the Halifax Citadel, but we changed our minds at the last minute because we’re not sure Kevin would have been able to handle all of that walking.

I’m glad now that we stuck with just the city tour. Because by the time we got to Halifax, the week was catching up to him and he was reaching the exhaustion point of no return (though I suspect he had already reached it by that time).

We got on our bus and headed to downtown Halifax.

The tour was very interesting. I’ve really enjoyed taking these tours because you learn so many interesting details about the city, details you might not have learned otherwise unless you Googled the city before leaving.

One of the things we enjoyed hearing about, was the Halifax Explosion.

The Halifax Explosion occurred on Thursday, December 6, 1917, when the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, was devastated by the huge detonation of the SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship, fully loaded with wartime explosives, which accidentally collided with the Norwegian SS Imo in “The Narrows” section of the Halifax Harbour. About 2,000 people were killed by debris, fires, or collapsed buildings and it is estimated that over 9,000 people were injured. This is still the world’s largest man-made accidental explosion.

The smoke stacks that you see in the above picture, in addition to being functional smoke stacks, symbolize the disaster that happened in the cove.

The tour guide told us that 24 short hours after the devastating explosion, a train carrying doctors, nurses and first aid supplies arrived from Boston to help take care of their wounded. As a way to show their appreciation, Halifax now sends Boston a huge Christmas tree every year.

In 1918, Halifax sent a Christmas tree to the City of Boston in thanks and remembrance for the help that the Boston Red Cross and the Massachusetts Public Safety Committee provided immediately after the disaster. That gift was revived in 1971 by the Lunenburg County Christmas Tree Producers Association, who began an annual donation of a large tree to promote Christmas tree exports as well as acknowledge the Boston support after the explosion. The gift was later taken over by the Nova Scotia Government to continue the goodwill gesture as well as to promote trade and tourism. The tree is Boston’s official Christmas tree and is lit on Boston Common throughout the holiday season.

See? Interesting stuff.

But it gets better.

Personally, I’ve always sort of had a fascination with the Titanic disaster. It’s hard not to have an appreciation (especially if you cruise) for what happened considering so many of our boating laws were changed and improved after the tragedy.

Shortly after the Titanic sank in April 1912, the White Star Line went out to try and retrieve as many bodies as they could from the water.

(Side note: The White Star Line, the British shipping company that built the Titanic, merged with its chief rival Cunard Lines in 1934 which then became a part of Carnival Corporations in 2005. Carnival Corporations, Carnival Cruise Lines … interesting that we were sailing on a ship made by a company that built the Titanic, no?)

The White Star ships were able to retrieve a little over 300 people. Most of them are buried in the Fairview Lawn Cemetary in Halifax, though a few were claimed by relatives and taken home to be buried.

The slant of the gravestones symbolizes the bow of a ship.
The gravestones state the name of the person, the date he/she died and the number by which they were pulled out of the water. (Bogie was the 274th person they pulled out of the water).

We all huddled in close to hear the stories the tour guide told us about that fateful voyage.

We were all fascinated, yet horrified, at the individual stories. Looking at the gravestones made the tragedy personal, more real, and our group became extremely quiet. After our guide finished speaking and we were allowed to spend some time on our own in the cemetery, me and the guys quietly walked down the line of gravestones, our hands clasped behind our backs, and silently read the names of all the poor people that were fished out of the sea.

It was a very sobering experience.

There were two stories I thought were especially fascinating:

The grave of the unknown child, and Jack Dawson.

The title ‘Unknown Child’ refers to the body of a small, blonde boy which was pulled from the ocean after the sinking of the ship. When instructed to burn the victim’s clothes to discourage souvenir hunters, the morgue workers could not bear to burn the sweet little child’s shoes, and buried him in a grand tomb in a cemetery in Halifax

For years, it was believed the ‘Unknown Child’ was 2-year old Gosta Palsson, from Sweden, as Mrs. Palsson’s body had been found floating nearby. In 2001, however, DNA tests revealed the boy’s identity was actually that of Eino Panula, a 13-month old Finn whose entire family perished in the disaster, as did Gosta’s. Panula descendants came across the ocean to visit their ancestor’s grave. However, in 2007, scientists revised their opinion and confirmed the body to belong to 1-year old Sidney Goodwin, a third-class English boy who was the youngest of a lost family of eight. Nowadays, the ‘Unknown Child’ has become a symbol of all the innocence lost in the disaster, and how it can still be remembered and honored many years later.

Only the tour guide didn’t tell us the identity of the child, he left it hanging. We naturally had to look up the entire story when we got home.

Now, the story of Jack Dawson.

Does that name sound familiar? It would if you saw the movie “Titanic” with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslett.

Jack Dawson’s name was taken from the 227th person the White Star Line pulled from the water, J. Dawson. There’s a bit of a mystery behind the J. Dawson name – it is believed that J. Dawson was actually Joseph Dawson and the story behind this man is perhaps even more intriguing than the Titanic story itself. I’ll let you read it for yourself.

However, that’s where the popular “Titanic” movie ends as far as accuracy. Our tour guide told us that if we wanted a more accurate (he said it was about 80% accurate) portrayal of the disaster, we needed to watch the 1958 “A Night to Remember.”

And Kevin and I watched it. In fact, I watched it twice, the second time around I listened to the commentary, which was fascinating.

The movie was exactly the length it took the Titanic to sink, from a half hour before the boat hit the iceberg until it sank. It gave me goosebumps. If you get a chance to watch it, I recommend it, and listen to the commentary, there are some really interesting facts about the tragedy, not to mention all of the laws that have been enacted since the tragedy.

The reason I took a picture of J. Dawson’s gravestone, complete with the bare earth leading up to the gravestone was because shortly after the film came out (and up to about five years ago, our tour guide said), people laid out flowers and all sort of memorabilia to remember “Jack Dawson.”

I found this disturbing. One, that people would become so emotionally invested in a movie that they would place flowers on a dead man’s grave (granted, they thought the character was an actual person), but that they would place flowers on a grave of a person they didn’t even know. People are honoring a fictitious person, it turns out. Does no one remember the REAL J. Dawson? I feel like the memory of the real Dawson has been eclipsed by Hollywood and I think it’s a tad disrespectful. Because even if people thought they were honoring the real Jack Dawson, they weren’t, they were honoring the PORTRAYAL of the real Jack Dawson (i.e. Leonardo DiCaprio’s character), not the actual man.

At any rate, I felt sorry for the real J. Dawson, whoever he might have been.

The tour bus took us to some Victorian Gardens (the plants were planted in symmetry, something that was (is?) very important to Victorian culture) and we visited the Citadel, though we didn’t actually go in (that was extra and we would have had to find our own transportation back to the pier). We thoroughly enjoyed our tour of Halifax. The historical tidbits were just the icing on the cake and I think the boys really liked hearing about the details behind the landmarks.

The skies were a bit overcast when we were there (which is typical Nova Scotia weather, apparently), but it was still beautiful and quite warm. Our tour guide gave us the option of getting off the bus and walking the length of the pier back to our ship (which was about a mile and a half) and though normally we would have done that, Kevin just didn’t feel up to it, so we rode the bus back the entire way. Most of the people had gotten off though and our guide came back to talk to us. He asked Kevin what had happened to him and was suitably sympathetic when he found out. He also flirted with a pair of older women in front of us going so far as to satisfy their curiosity on whether or not he was wearing any underwear under his kilt

He was. (I didn’t exactly want to know that information, quite frankly, but it WAS funny).

We walked through the pier a bit (I bought a Nova Scotia hoodie) before we boarded the boat. We ate lunch and then took it easy for the rest of the day.

We had a full day of sailing back to New York the next day and though I have a few pictures to share with you, overall, it was a relaxing day for all of us.

And we needed it.

Dear So-and-So

Dear Grandma

Karen

Dear Grandma:

I’m sorry I wasn’t a better granddaughter.

I deeply regret not making more of an effort to get to know you; I have no one to blame for that but me.

No one.

I take full responsibility for not making the time to come see you, to talk to you, to laugh with you, to make fun of grandpa with you – to this day, I can’t tell you why I was like that. There is no one thing anyone said or did to make me act that way.

Perhaps there is something wrong with me, emotionally. I often wonder about this as I’m affectionate to those I love, but only to a point.

Perhaps I’m afraid to love too much.

Perhaps this is something I need to come to grips with and get over. For can we really love one person too much?

I’m so sorry that the latter part of your life was so difficult. I can’t imagine what your life must have been like as the disease took over your body. I’m sure you were scared, perhaps just a bit angry, and I’m so sorry I wasn’t there to offer support. I think, and please, this is not a justification, but my attempt to understand my behavior, I think that I thought that since you had reached a point where you didn’t recognize those closest to you, why in the world would you recognize me? The absentee granddaughter?

Even when I consciously realized what an ass I was being, I still didn’t make amends. I guess, again, not excusing, I thought that by that time, it was too late. I didn’t want you to think I was just showing up because I wanted something from you. That was I being nice just so you would look favorably on me. I think that thought bothered me SO much that I did the exact opposite, I just never made the effort.

Words can not express how hard this is to write and put on display. It showcases a part of my personality that I am not proud of, and yet, I feel like I should stop trying to pretend it doesn’t exist and address it, for I do not want to grow into an old, bitter woman because of this personality defect.

Though this might have been a better post to keep private, for my eyes only, I wanted to show people that I’m not perfect, that I have made mistakes. By posting this, I hope people learn from my mistakes and take my regrets to heart; please, don’t make the same poor decisions I did when it comes to treating your family.

Family is everything. I know my behavior doesn’t exactly support that declaration, but trust me, I believe it from the bottom of my heart.

There is no excuse to treat family as if they don’t exist. None. I have no excuses, I will not attempt to excuse my behavior away – but I want to be honest because it does little good to try to fool myself, or more importantly, others into thinking I’m this good person, when I’m clearly not.

I have flaws. I have made mistakes. And not keeping you and grandpa in my life, on a continuous basis, is clearly one of the bigger ones.

Rest in peace, grandma. I shall see you when Christ comes for us.

Love,

Karen

(Comments are closed. This is too personal and too emotional to discuss).