Commitment - Oaths

Greetings Dear Reader,

“An oath is a solemn commitment that often involves invoking a divine witness and is relative to future behaviour.”   We primarily see oaths from those entering the military, law enforcement, medicine, and politics.  All of our national Presidents have taken this oath:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

The presidential oath is taken most of the time with his hand on a Bible.  The public nature of this type of commitment should be inviolable.   Oaths and vows deal with future actions.  We promise to do or not do something.  We give assurances that the thing that we are being entrusted with will be completed faithfully.

So much of an oath is related to acts of faith.  We are bound to act in the promised way for the duration of the time we are entrusted with the office or duty.  I wonder if we understand the full weight of that type of commitment.  Since we cannot foresee all circumstances we are promising to act a certain way no matter what happens.  This is a serious faith based commitment.

I am not talking about faith in God.  It is faith in our own fortitude that is involved in an oath.  I will do “X” no matter what happens with “Y”.   This is not only binding it is open ended.  It does not surprise me that Jesus cautioned us about swearing oaths.  It is not that we should not take them but that we should understand the full weight of them.

It keeps coming back to personal integrity.  I must be complete in my loyalty to the words I say.  I must be honorable and honest.  I must be the one who governs my actions so that they adhere to my word.  An oath is making clear that to which I am saying “yes”. 

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Talismans – Two Swords

Greetings Dear Reader,

My name, in case you did not know is a nom-de-plume.  It comes from a character I created when I was eight.   He was the first hero in the first story I ever wrote.  When I began to play role playing games in the mid-seventies he was my first avatar.  That character was a Paladin, a holy knight.

Artemis

Several years ago I was gifted with two swords that matched so closely to the fictional description of the swords that paladin carried in his adventures.  These were gifts give to me out of love for who I am and I cherish them greatly.  The swords were named Artemis and Angelique.   I know how to use a sword.  They are power and fascinating weapons. These two swords are both beautiful and fully functional.  They are my talismans of the Word of God. 

Angelique

The author of the letter to the Hebrews writes, “God's word is living and active. It is sharper than any two-edged sword and cuts as deep as the place where soul and spirit meet, the place where joints and marrow meet. God's word judges a person's thoughts and intentions.”

I read the Bible every day.  I memorize the parts that speak to me.  I think about it when I ponder choices.  It is the filter through which I try to run every choice.  Paul writes that we are to have the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of Truth as part of our preparation to fight for Christ.  Notice that our only offensive weapon is the Bible, which teaches us to fight with love. 

It is in this book that I find the power to take the offensive.  It is not complicated although there is complexity in living it out.  My offensive weapon is to be used to cut away barriers to faith.  It is light to pierce the darkness.  It divides the emotions from the need to see that we have a need for redemption.  It does not surprise me that people work so hard to destroy this weapon.  Fortunately for me it was forged by God.

So Many Books – Michael Card

There is a hunger, a longing for bread

And so comes the call for the poor to be fed

More hungry by far are a billion and more

Who wait for the Bread of the Word of the Lord

So many books, so little time, so many hunger, so many blind

Starving for words, they must wait in the night

To open a Bible and move towards the Light

There'll come a time, the prophets would say

When the joy of mankind will be withered away

A want not for water, but a hunger for more

A famine for hearing the Word of the Lord

So many books, so little time, so many hunger, so many blind

Starving for words, they must wait in the night

To open a Bible and move towards the Light)

...To open a Bible and move towards the Light,

Open a Bible and move towards the Light

The Word won't go out, except it return

Full, over flowing and so we must learn

So many books, so little time, so many hunger, so many blind

Starving for words, they must wait in the night

To open a Bible and move towards the Light

To open a Bible and move towards the Light

Open a Bible and move towards the Light

Open a Bible and move towards the Light

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

On Giving Thanks – Chick-Fil-A

Greetings Dear Reader,

I realize that a chicken restaurant may seem like an odd thing to be thankful for but its placement here is both intentional and worthy.  A short time back this business received a lot of bad press over and ill-timed comment in our all too sensitive political society.  I am thankful for the food, work, and advertising of this amazing restaurant chain.

I first want to talk about what is really important; the Chick-fil-A Foundation.   Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-Fil-A believed in hard work and good ethics cemented in Biblical principles.   We lost Mr. Cathy this year but what he build will long honor his faith and his memory.  The foundation he funded through his company works hard to build solid youth with a good education.  Learning mattered to Mr. Cathy and his foundation has that as one of its core missions.

This is a business that puts its valued out front.  They are closed on Sundays.  They are good to their workers.  They treat customers with respect and like family all at once.  More than once on a visit home to Georgia I have told a Chick-Fil-A manager that I lived in the frozen north and that my arrival at his establishment signaled my first chicken sandwich in months or even sometimes years.  This is several times resulted in a free chicken biscuit.  I am always grateful.

Another of the things for which I am thankful is the food that they make.  It is clearly the  best chicken sandwich  I have ever had and the chicken biscuits are beyond compare.  I yearn for this when I return to the south and count the minutes when I arrive in the vicinity of the franchise until I can garner some of their cuisine.  I will speak more about this in a moment.

One of the tortures I have endured is that Chick-Fil-A has amazing advertising that sometimes reaches in my home market.  This advertising is in the form of some very clever cows admonishing us to eat more chicken.  The ads are brilliant and compelling.  They are also painful when you know the nearest restaurant is over three hours away. 

Recently these commercials began showing up on my local stations with great regularity.  Had I not ^th the town in which I live will get its own Chick-Fil-A with all the perks that accompany said event. 

been preparing to journey south for Thanksgiving it would have been unbearable.   It was painful anyway.  Then I learned that on December 4

As I journey home today instead of the sadness I often feel when I pass the last opportunity for a real chicken sandwich I anticipate five days hence when I can get one any morning I wish except Sundays.  It is truly a blessing to our community and me.  Well Dear Reader, I am off to grab a couple of chicken biscuits for the road.  Tomorrow I will close out this series from my writing room at home.  Until then know that I am thankful for you and your company on the journey.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)