Sentinels ~ Closing Thoughts

Greetings Dear Reader,

The things over which we stand sentinel are vital and precious.  We have done a poor job.  We have not kept watch over what matters and have protected things that do not.  We have majored on things which are our opinion instead of the orders of the watch. 

What I must do is stand sentinel over things that I am commanded to protect.  My focus must be on protecting love, grace, mercy, and kindness.  I must stand as a sentinel of hope.  It is not those who wish us ill that I am to keep out.  Rather, I am to be there to watch for those looking for the way in.  I am to be there for those needing hope.

We are fallen sentinels who have failed our watch too often.  Yet, the Father still insists that we stand our post.  He wants to use our failures to build hope for others.  We cannot deny our failures and watch with integrity.  Some of us, however, deny the Father and our duty instead of our own flaws.  We choose to abandon our post instead of dealing with our need to be better sentinels of our hearts and minds.

Nothing is more important than keeping my post with love for the Father and my fellow humans.  All of it is my duty.  There is not a time when I am not required to watch my own heart, guard the hearts of others, and make a safe path home for those seeking refuge.  I am to be the sentinel of all that is available for us in Christ. 

I am not permitted to hate, judge, or refuse help to those who see my watch as foolish.  Those who hate me for my emblem and post are to be repaid with love and respect.  Those who mock my Lord are to be treated with grace and mercy.  My actions of love are what is to be my defense.  If I do less, as I sometimes do, I am failing at my post.  I am being a poor sentinel.  My first duty is to love Dear Reader.   I am trying to be better at it.  Your company helps.

Dare You to Move – Switchfoot

Welcome to the planet
Welcome to existence
Everyone's here
Everyone's here
Everybody's watching you know
Everybody waits for you now
What happens next?
What happens next?

I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened before

Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
The tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be
Yeah

I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened before

Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here

I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself
To lift yourself up off the floor

I dare you to move
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened
Today never happened
Today never happened before

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 homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

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Sentinels ~ Orders of the Watch

Greetings Dear Reader,

When we stand watch over the things of the Gospel, we have clear instructions as to how we are to stand that watch.  I read a social media post this week that proclaimed that God hates everyone who lives a certain lifestyle.  This person has abandoned the orders of the watch.  She has left behind her duty to defend that which is not true.

I apologize that not all who believe as I do live up to the orders of the watch.  I fail at them at times and regret that as well.  The orders stand no matter how the sentinels behave.  We are obligated to them and are not faithful to our post when we violate them.

We have discussed some of them this week but woven into those discussions are the threads that bind them together.  Those threads, left out of the fabric our watch make the patchwork of our cloaks tattered rags.  Here they are Dear Reader.  If any claim to stand sentinel over the Gospel and do not use these, they are not obeying the orders of the watch.

The sentinel must be kind: This is not the kindness of simply holding a door or giving someone your space in line.  It is a kindness born of the desire to treat others with goodness in every situation.  It is much more difficult than it sounds.  It is also a primary requirement of the sentinel.

The sentinel must deal in grace: This is a predisposition to give undeserved favor to everyone we encounter.  If there is a need we can meet, we should meet it.  It is an assumption that every human soul must be treated with respect and honored for the life it represents.  It is not measuring others by their deeds but instead measuring them by the core rule of our orders.  We will get to that in a moment.  Let us say though, it is grace by which we stand and, therefore, grace in which we must deal with others.

The sentinel must deal in mercy: We have power because of Christ.  That power is to forgive.  It is to release others from debt to us and give renewed opportunities to find and embrace Christ.  We again stand because of the Father’s mercy and dare not withhold it from others in the mundane things we consider more important than our own offenses to God.  The order of the watch is mercy to others because we are in dire need of it daily.

The sentinel must do all things in love: We have a prime directive.  We have an order that is the foundation of all orders.  If we do not deal out justice, truth, kindness, grace, righteousness, and mercy in love, then we are not compliant with the orders of the watch.  We have created an image of the Father that is skewed and flawed because we do not stand sentinel over the love we are commanded to wield.  It is not an easy watch but it is our duty.  It is our prime directive Dear Reader to love and show love to every human. 

We hear others crying out for the orders of our watch and we find paltry reasons to withhold them.  We make excuses based on improper application of some orders over others.  We are obligated to love.  If we stand sentinel without it then we are not true to the orders of the Father no matter how shiny our armor or beautiful our watch post.  If you question this, be aware that everyone is watching you.  They are looking for this whether they know it or not.

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 homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

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Sentinels ~ Strength

Greetings Dear Reader,

It is quite popular today to speak of how strong we are emotionally or because we have survived some form of trauma.  I would take nothing from those who have endured these things nor would I discount that strength is one of the things required.   The strength of the sentinel, however, is a kind of strength that I think we have forgotten.

There is a scene in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan where Scotty is holding his dying nephew.  His line is this, “He stayed at his post.  When the other recruits ran, he stayed at his post.”  There is a kind of strength that is held by those who stand sentinel over things that matter.  I am speaking of those who stay their watch when others abandon it.

I have both stayed my watch over faith and faithfulness.  I have also abandoned it at times.  The latter is never successful.  We are supposed to be strong sentinels of truth, faith, and following.  Others watch us, looking to see if we can wield the strength of our Father with gentle kindness.  Again, the strength is to stand not just to act.  We are given a post to stand and it is ours to guard.  We will fail.  We will fall and sometimes even abandon our post.  We can choose to take it up again but there will be consequences.  Things will never be the same. 

We must also comprehend that our strength must be used to serve others, defend the weak, and show our love and kindness.  If we fail to be strong at our post, others will be harmed.  Others will suffer for our inattention.  We can only then move forward and try to be better today than we were.  We will need more strength to do this.  It will require deep power to remain strong.  Those who we have harmed by abandoning our post may hate us for it. 

It is still our duty to take up our watch in love and strength.  It must still be tempered with humility and we have to endure the choices others make in response to our action.  Forgiveness and restoration will be worked out by the Father as he sees fit.  This is hard to endure Dear Reader.  That, however, is what strength is for.  Even if we have failed previously, we have a watch to keep and we must be strong.  I will stand with you Dear Reader.

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 homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

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Sentinels ~ Set Apart

Greetings Dear Reader,

Since 1660 the Queen’s Guard (King’s Guard when the Monarch is a male) has stood sentinel outside of the residence of the Monarch of England.  Buckingham palace is currently the most famous site where these sentinels appear.  The changing of the guard is a tourist favorite when visiting London.

These stoic sentinels are famous for their steadfast stillness in the face of interaction and even taunting.  Their duty is to be set apart to keep watch.  Their role is to stand out as the protectors of the residence of the Queen.  They are true sentinels and illustrate a concept that we seem to have lost as Christ followers.

They are set apart.  They stand watch and remain unruffled by taunts, flirtations, and questions.  They are humans who have learned to be what their duty requires of them without responding to the events swirling around them.  They endure the ebb and flow of tourists bent on testing their resolve to their duty.  They stand watch and remain faithfully set apart to that duty.

We are required to be set apart as well.  The word is holy and it does not mean that we are better than anyone else.  It does not imply that we are more righteous, deserving, or closer to God than others.  True holiness can only be evidence through humility.  It can only be maintained through grace and discipline.  Jesus required that we attempt to match his holiness.  Not that we can be sinless or perfect but that we can set ourselves apart in a way that makes us stand out as distinctly as the Queen’s Guard. 

It should be our commitment to love, grace, and kindness through humility that sets us apart.  In the eyes of others, it must be what we represent that is seen.  We stand sentinel over things that are holy and pure.  We should reflect those things with clear understanding and without getting in the way by calling attention to ourselves.  It is love, grace, and kindness that matter.  It is our duty that must define us.

We bear the mark of one set apart as clearly as the Queen’s Guard bright red uniforms.  Our crimson, however, is the mark left by the blood of Christ.  It is the mark that says we are being made holy daily by choosing to live as Christ followers.  It is noble and good.  It is also only possible through humility and grace.  Let us stand sentinel together Dear Reader and consider our ability to do so with humility.

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 homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

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Sentinels ~ And Justice for All

Greetings Dear Reader,

It is not just the police or courts that must be sentinels of justice.  Whether it is legal or social justice, we are all responsible that it be made equally available to everyone.  We live in freedom under a system that is supposed to deliver justice to everyone.

We rarely discuss Divine justice.  It has been made clear that if we claim to follow Christ then we have a deep obligation to both civil and social justice.  We are not supposed to treat anyone unjustly.  We do.  We do more often than we admit.  For those of you who do not share my faith, you are always free to hold us accountable to this truth.

We have replaced an understanding of justice with an attitude of fairness in our culture.  I have said before, I do not believe in fairness when it comes to human needs.  I believe in justice.  I am not talking about this at the legal level even though that applies.  We cannot be “fair” to everyone.  There is no way to make everything equal.  We can be just with everyone if we choose to be. 

The duty to stand sentinel over justice includes tempering it with love, grace, mercy, and kindness.  The idea that justice should be blind may work for legal issues but not for social or moral ones.  First, one cannot legislate morality.  I will leave that there and pick it up another time.  When it comes to social justice, the blindfold has no place.  We are supposed to consider the needs of others for the very purpose of dealing with them justly.

It is sadly funny and deadly serious that when we turn a blind eye to the needs of others, we are in fact being unjust.  We have the ability to help and we choose to walk by instead.  As Christ followers, we are obligated to care for others.  We may not be able to help everyone.  We can, however, help more than we do.  We walk in injustice more than we should. 

As sentinels of justice, we wield not a sword but love and kindness.  We deliver grace and mercy in the name of being just about our debt for the grace and mercy we have received.  We cannot be blind to the needs of others and deal justly with the gifts we have received. 

The church over the ages has hammered others with God’s justice whilst failing to temper it with his love and mercy.  We have beaten others with it instead of dealing in grace.  We must be just in our application of all things.  It must flow from our standing watch over the needs of others and not our judgment of those in need.  We have failed greatly by relegating our obligation for the social justice needs or our neighbors to our government and then not demanding that they do it well.  We have turned a blind eye to the needs of others and written on the eye patch is “there are government programs for that.”

Justice must be viewed as something provided to those in need and not just a way to get what we think we are due.  If I see things honestly, I owe more than I am due, therefore, I must focus first on dealing out loving, merciful, kind justice to others.  If my faith is real, I can count on the Father to justly meet my needs.  How about you Dear Reader?

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 homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

Support Page on Patreon: www.patreon.com/aramisthorn

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Sentinels ~ Righteousness

Greetings Dear Reader,

I realize that this may sound very theological.  I am not trying to lecture you on theology.  I am laying a foundation for that over which we stand sentinel.  There are times when there is a clear right and wrong.  There are times when you are absolutely right.  This should not be confused with righteousness.  Righteousness is the quality of being morally right or justifiable.  It is acting in accord with divine or moral law: free from guilt or sin. The primary difference is that we are often right but our state is not one of righteousness.

We have all done things that are wrong.  We are all crooked sticks.  We compare ourselves to those “worse” than us or measure the goodness of others by our own moral code.  We fail to daily see that we do not begin to approach the righteousness of the Father.  Our very best intention or deed is nothing compared to the righteousness of God.  We see the distance between our morality and our neighbor’s.  We seem blind to the great gulf between us and God.

The idea that we have righteousness may, therefore, seem contradictory to this truth.  It is not something we can attain on our own.  Our current state is not righteousness.  God, however, commits our standing with him to righteousness in Christ.  Any righteousness we carry is conferred to us by Christ and is not our own.

We must stand sentinel over the righteousness conferred to us.  We can do it in confidence but not in pride.  It is not something that we own but it is ours.  It is not earned but given.  It is not our ability or intrinsic nature.  It is our primary armor against the failures we commit.  It is what reassures us that the Father loves and accepts us even in our darkest moments.

This is what also stands as the sentinel forbidding us from judging others.  That comparison we do, it is an exercise in failure.  No one is “worse” than us in the eyes of God.  No one is less deserving of the Father’s love, grace, and mercy.  Righteousness is not ours to wield.  It is ours to wear.  We can wear righteousness and stand sentinel over it by the grace of the Father.  Wielding it as a weapon to judge others is failure to be right spawned in pride and arrogance.

We must stand sentinel over righteousness Dear Reader.  We must not, however, think that we have the right to judge others because of it.  It should trigger compassion and humility.  It should move us to deeper love for the Father and our fellow humans.  Until we yield to this truth, we cannot wield righteousness at all.

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 homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

Support Page on Patreon: www.patreon.com/aramisthorn

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Sentinels ~ Truth

Greetings Dear Reader,

As a crafter of tales and an oft-times dissembler of deeds, I seek the truth on which to build my tales.  Historical Fiction, my primary genre, requires that the history of the situation be guarded whilst crafting the tale around it.  I am also a life-long asker of uncomfortable questions.  Merging the truth with uncomfortable questions is an excellent foundation for learning.

The difficulty is the way in which we stand sentinel over truth.  We seem to have lost the ability to speak the truth in love.  That is how it is supposed to be done.  The truth is ours to hold and guard.  It is even a weapon when necessary.  The problem comes when we strike with it and withhold compassion and kindness.  We use it as a hammer or sword.  We excuse it by saying we are “just being honest.”

We are not just being honest when we speak the truth in anger, irony, or for vengeance.  When we turn the truth into an aggressive harmful weapon, it loses its power as truth.  The wounds get the attention instead of the truth.  Wielding the truth in love is what allows us to carve away the things that are not true and move further along in the things that matter.

When we use the truth to hurt others, we may convince them of the truth but we have not won them over.  We may put them off balance but we are not drawing them into our circle.  Our vital duty is to speak the truth in love.  Love is the foundation; therefore, it must come first.  When I load my speech with truth, it must be couched in love for the object of that speech.

I cannot pretend to follow Christ and refuse to act as he did.  I must be aware that the only people he was harsh with were the religious leaders who mishandled the truth by making it a burden and failing to use love as its foundation.  Law without truth is more than legalism.  It is dead orthodoxy.  It is a harsh weapon that does not give life.  Instead of making others free, it imprisons them in soulless cells guilty of harsh judgment and makes them angry.  

We must stand sentinel over the truth Dear Reader.  It is our duty to protect the truth but it is our first duty to love.  Our primary obligation to the truth is to deliver it in a way that reassures others or that love.  When we use love to deliver truth, we use the most powerful weapon there is.  It disarms, welcomes, and reassures whilst stripping away pain and suffering.  It invites instead of condemning.  That is a position over which I can stand sentinel Dear Reader.

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 homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

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Sentinels ~ Opening Thoughts

Greetings Dear Reader,

Anyone who is familiar with the X-Men comics is knows well the Sentinels.  These are giant powerful robots developed for the purpose of hunting mutants.  Their purpose is to hunt down and destroy those who are not like us.  Their role is to deliver injustice to the heroes in those comics.

The difficulty with that is multifaceted.  The facet on which I focus is that of the misuse of the word.  A sentinel is not a hunter.  It is a guard charged with standing watch over something to protect it.  A sentinel is responsible to look outward and be aware of any approaching danger.  A group of them may form a picket line around a camp or area.  Their duty is to defend not hunt.  They serve by watching.  They serve by standing aware and waiting to be engaged.

When we ponder our own lives, I wonder if we have not also lost an understanding of what should stand sentinel for us.  I consider that we have taken things meant to be our passive defensive position and transformed them into aggressive offensive drones programmed to seek and destroy instead of stand and protect.  There are things that should stand sentinel over our hearts and minds.  There are strongholds we must defend.  We must not, however, turn those sentinels into seekers; hunter-killers designed to destroy those who are not like us. 

I wish to walk through a better understanding of the things that must stand sentinel over me to protect and guide me.  I must make sure that these powerful things are defending my journey but not seeking to harm others in any way.  Used properly they are powerful forces for good.  Employed wrongly, they are dangerous detractors from the very thing they defend. 

Please walk with me Dear Reader as I navigate a path of balance between that which must stand sentinel over my journey and limiting the role to guard duty and never aggression against anyone.  Together perhaps we can find a place to stand that is both safe and serves our proper purpose.  I look forward to your thoughts and questions.  Your company is priceless.  We can stand watch together and care for each other.

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 homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

Support Page on Patreon: www.patreon.com/aramisthorn

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