Comments

• 

  Matt Miller July 12, 2008 at 9:48am

  Dear Lonnell,
  The poem of Lord Byron below was actually written in 1815 and was part of the book Hebrew Melodies published that year.
  The source I was using was wrong about it being penned after the discovery - it should read the poem still inspired many after the discovery -
  Thanks,
  Matt
• 

  Matt Miller July 11, 2008 at 4:56pm

  Dear Lonnell and Saint of God
  ("A saint is a theater where the qualities of God can be seen.") Rumi.
  
  I marvel at your writing and your way in words - the words and the sentences are easily entreated and flow like a stream with no whirlpools and are laced with the qualities of God "dropping their blossoms around you" For me they also inspire - and germinate my study of the Words of God.
  
  In your comment you mentioned further the Blues and the role of the loss of sight or love, or a job as the source of the inspiration for the Blues. I ran across this poem and I thought it was so interesting because of the "oriental" method of putting God first is reversed.
  
  And my heart, I'd say is more
  
  like a donkey sunk in a mud hole,
  
  struggling and miring deeper,
  
  
  
  But listen to me for one moment,
  
  quit being sad. Hear blessings
  
  dropping their blossoms around you. God.
  (The Essential Rumi - Coleman Barks)
  
  So those words reminded me of a part of your ministry and a son of a father that loved hearing the blues - and a Son of God - with words from the heart of his Lord.
  
  Now you said in a comment -that there is a relationship between poetry and prophesy and that poets and prophets have a geneses of unity and so that led to hours of work for me - God Bless you.
  
  Anyway in a segment of this work I went to the book of Micah to study a couple examples and I came across this wonderful passage that is relevant to how I see what a man of God is - in this example a prophet.
  
  Micah 3:8
  
  But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of might (prevalent power) , to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.
  
  The Prophet being assured of his vocation by the Spirit of God, sets himself alone against all the wicked, showing how God gave him gifts, ability and knowledge, to discern between good and evil, and also steadfastness and endurance to reprove the sins of the people, and not to flatter them. (Wesley's Notes)
  
  The title Jacob when used for the whole of the nation is a Hebraism meaning in relation or for "a flock" which is an allegory for the function of a shepherd or shepherd of God's people. This puts a true prophet in direct contrast and in direct contact with misguided and false ministers - to stand between them and the people that are harmed.
  
  Jesus Christ who took on the ruling elite of the temple and the pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducee's in a fulfilling way was God's signature of a true prophet.
  
  Micah 3: 5 Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.
  
  This verse really got me Lonnell because I could not put it together until I discovered Adam Clark's commentary on this verse.
  
  Verse 5. That bite with their teeth] That eat to the full; that are well provided for, and as long as they are so, prophesy smooth things, and cry, Peace! i.e., Ye shall have nothing but peace and prosperity. Whereas the true prophet, "who putteth not into their mouths," who makes no provision for their evil propensities, "they prepare war against him." hmjlm wyl[ wdq kiddeshu again milchamah, "They sanctify a war against him." They call on all to help them to put down a man who is speaking evil of the Lord's people; and predicting the destruction of his temple, and Israel his inheritance.
  
  This by the way is a biblical reference to sanctified war or "holy war"
  
  I found it intellectually informing that Adam Clark also in his commentary said don't discount all those who write and speak against the prevalent gospels of hope with no substance and peace with no end in sight - who take on the "princes of our time" who eat their own people that God gave them to protect and serve. Micah 3 :1 -3.
  
  Now that spoke to my heart in so many ways - Jesus Christ spoke and predicted the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem and called them stinking sepulchers (spoke evil against them) and they prepared and sanctified war against the Lord - with the fullness of the ministry of a prophet of God.
  
  Well the end result for the false prophets is this verse 6:
  
  That is why you will have nights without visions. You will have darkness without revelations. The sun will set on the prophets, and the day will turn dark for them.
  
  verse 7:Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.
  
  The covering of the lips is an oriental ism for great shame. It means to cover their mustache which in the Middle East (esp Iraq) is a man's dignity.
  
  
  What is wonderful about Micah is that he and Isaiah were two men together at the same time confirming and establishing the word of God for they spoke in parallel and thus all the promises of God concerning Jacob and Israel and the ministry of Jesus Christ and his role of prophet and ruler of Israel and the details of his birth (where it was to be) and ministry and death and Resurrection were established by these two speaking in tandem.
  
  The Assyrians did come and sacked Israel and surrounded Jerusalem. He impaled thousands on poles according to the records. Over 200,000 of the house Israel perished!
  
  But Jerusalem was saved by the angel of The Lord for the sake of Hezekiah who listened to Isaiah and Micah and whom the Lord honored.
  
  I will close with a poem by Lord Byron. He penned it after being inspired after one of the century's first archaeologists, young British adventurer Austen Henry Layard, explored the ruins of Nineveh in 1847 and rediscovered the lost palace of Sennacherib across the Tigris River from modern Mosul in northern Iraq.
  
  Inscribed in cuneiform on the colossal sculptures in the throne room was Sennacherib's own account of the siege of Jerusalem. It confirmed that Sennacherib did not capture the city. This find generated an excitement that is difficult to imagine and together with this poem inspired a great ministerial revival and so many accounts of that time I have looked at exclaimed "The Bible is True!" Yes two true prophets in tandem - their words established and God affirmed and augmented the growth of the Word from Michah and Isaiah to the 19Th Century with this poem.
  
  
  
  THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB
  
  by: George Gordon (Lord) Byron (1788-1824)
  
  HE Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
  And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
  And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
  When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
  
  Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,
  That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
  Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,
  That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
  
  For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
  And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
  And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
  And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!
  
  And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
  But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
  And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
  And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.
  
  And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
  With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:
  And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
  The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.
  
  And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
  And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
  And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
  Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!
  
  
  In answer to you last question - it was my fault - I would edit and remove my comment and replace it with the edited version -
  
  
  
  I have received your Legacies - there are no words I can muster now - my heart is so full with gratitude for your tribute to both my father and yours- but I will get response in good order - Thanks so much for that letter - my joy is complete.
  
  Matt Miller
• 

  Matt Miller July 9, 2008 at 10:38am

  Dear Lonnell Ibn (son of a father)
  
  There is no greater glory for a father than a son to claim him as his father in pride, in heart and in conviction.
  There is no better meal together than two sons talking of their father in celebration and remembrence and in legacy.
  
  At times in a dialog of the matters of heart a summary is both fitting and needed.
  
  A summary give a grand scope - it starts or assumes the audience knows where we are at the present and then in sequential structure and a logical format ties nodes together to explain how the fusion of inspiration and events, lights and shadows, words and deeds, joy and heartbreak, points of intersection where the spirit of man unites with another in common accord or discord, and then enlightens the understanding of those involved to the point of affirmation to proceed to a further crossroad in the journey.
  
  And what a wonderful summary your comment was.
  Thanks for the affirmation of fellowship, the salted words we have shared that perhaps will lay the groundwork for more and even greater things to come - which is anticipation - the key element of all fellowship.
  
  Mary Poppins - could sense the change of that weather vane so slightly when a wind would change directions - the wind is what brought her visitation and the change of the wind took her away as well. However the wind did not change until she accomplished all her purpose to completion with that family and thus it was time to leave.
  Her visitation gave the kids their father and the father the kids.
  She was instrumental to the wholeness in that family by her teaching the family to be a family and just enjoy each other and have some fun.
  
  So Christ was betrayed - illegally tried, tortured and killed by those who he was seeded to save? To show how to live? To show The Way? To show the Truth? Tribes that could not come together even with the messiah present to unite a family with Samaritan healing the Jew, divided into two - Oh a bride of adultery separting her children from their father - a divorce from hell. Twice divorced - Israel from Judea and Judea from Christ. Now that's the blues.
  
  Oh bride who freely gave her lover to another woman.
  
  There Was A Land Where Lived No Violets
  Stephen Crane
  
  There was a land where lived no violets.
  A traveller at once demanded : "Why?"
  The people told him:
  "Once the violets of this place spoke thus:
  'Until some woman freely gives her lover
  To another woman
  We will fight in bloody scuffle.'"
  Sadly the people added:
  "There are no violets here.
  
  And at the grave of the crucified man who dared to love his bride - a love he had to loose young maidens came to weep.
  
  Behold, the Grave of a Wicked Man
  Stephen Crane
  Behold the grave of a wicked man,
  and near it a stern spirit,
  There came a drooping maid with violets,
  But the spirit grasped her arm.
  "No flowers for him," he said.
  The maid wept:
  "Ah, I loved him."
  But the spirit, grim and frowning:
  "No flowers for him."
  
  Now, this is it --
  If the spirit was just,
  Why did the maid weep?
  
  The ultimate restoration - the banished and illegitimate poet of faith and redempiton, the shamed king of the Cross, now in glory ruling His Fathers Kingdom triumphantly returns with His new olive tree - inflaming the jealously of his first wife. Now that's the Blues.
  
  I addressed you Ibn - it means Son of a father. The Blues Poem - Dear Brother shows a sense of relationship to your father - and I am looking forward to your work - Legacy.
  
  You don’t know what love is
  Until you’ve learned the meaning of the blues
  Until you’ve loved a love you’ve had to lose
  You don’t know what love is
  Now I know just what Daddy meant when he nodded his head
  and sighed and wanted to go back just one more time.
  Quiet as it’s kept, my Daddy loved him some blues.
  
  Ah I have been running this through my mind all day.
  You don' know the meaning of the blues until you had to loose someone who you loved-
  
  I can say nothing - but the space is filled with your sense of my own blues.
  I would have loved to meet your father.
  
  I remember going to Rush Street - Chicago - and listening to the blues all night -
  The Blues is Good for it allows us "to go back one more time" and then get a restful sleep.
  I am sure Jesus blesses the Blues.
  
  Oh the wonder of your story - of the event of the affirmation and confirmation birds - the reason it is so unique - and so mysterious how those birds got there - is because God wants you to think about it - it is one of those things in life that God does - like being nice to people - strangers because they might be angels.
  Now I give to you son of your father a poem that I am sure your father might have listened to and nodded his head. Langston Hughes. I listened to this several times yesterday.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyqwvC5s4n8
  
  Your Brother
  Mat son of a father.
• 

  Christine (Alleva) Cole July 7, 2008 at 11:59am

  Dear Lonnell,
  
  Please no apology necessary. I am very blessed and thankful to hear from you. It brought tears to my eyes because I could feel the warmth and tenderness of God's love you so beautifully manifest right here in my living room.
  
  It's the quality time people spend together that stays in a heart forever. And you have certainly made that impact in my heart.
  
  Thank you for sharing a part of your heart and life with me. I know that wherever you are and whatever you do always brings glory to God.
  
  God bless you exceedingly abundantly above all that you can ask or think....
  
  Love you,
  Christine
• 

  Matt Miller July 7, 2008 at 11:13am

  Thank you for your kind comments regarding my father.
  He is in Panama now - flew from Ottawa (where he lives) to Atlanta to Panama City. Aparently he arrived safely as I talked to mother last night. I asked her where he is staying and she told me he is staying with some of the local parishoners - he returns to Ottawa on Thursday.
  I inadvertently removed my last comment by accident dated July 5.
  I do have a copy of it to restore it to the comment page.
  Matt
• 

  Matt Miller July 7, 2008 at 10:30am

  Dear Lonnell - Christ's poet,
  Well Lonnell - an expert shot has to hit everything from close range, intermediate range and even has to pull off one of the long 300 yard shots. You squeezed off that 300 meter target with that last poem.
  
  Perhaps a word that is fitly spoken at the exact right time is the mark of an expert poet of Christ.
  Coincidentally I was in correspondence with a friend on this site - about a personal family issue with which I am faced and she had just emailed a response that affirmed the themes of justice and judgment- that they were on my side - and that the thing I am facing is temporary in nature. it was a very brief comment but I perceived that it came from the Christ in Her - directly ministering to my situation (I now reflect on every word she wrote and each word had relevance to my situation). Then I noticed exactly after I read her email that you had commented on the Way Corp site and I read your whole comment and the poem with the theme of restoration . Good Grace, I was shaking with the knowledge that God would restore - God would act in judgment on my situation and that the pain and confusion is temporary.
  It was amazing - just amazing -
  
  And what He designed for good nothing can destroy.
  
  One of the things God has designed for good is our own children - and because he designed them for good - nothing can destroy. (My father who was also talking to me in the essence of children - called them rights - and with every right is an obligation - a little spice from the Quron - that my father knows as well as any Muslim)
  
  released burdens, and without hesitation
  Abba, Father assured me that He sees and cares.
  
  Cast all your cares on Him for He careth for you.
  
  This is where it began yesterday - I prayed and asked for affirmation - confirmation and augmentation regarding my family situation - He gave it into my heart to confide with the fore mentioned friend I have who is on this site (a mother) but who I corresponded with regularly before this site went up since I enjoy the brilliance of her mental ability combined her natural ability to load a word with her own essence. Often God tells us who to confide in at the instant of personal burden that cannot be adequately carried by oneself. Although I argued with him briefly since I did not want to embarrass myself I acted.
  
  His heart of compassion was touched by fervent prayers.
  In the hammock of love, the Spirit cradled me
  And caressed my weary mind with a gentle breeze.
  
  Touched by fervent prayers - there is no substitute for white hot prayers from those who you
  
  show your burden to.
  
  In the hammock of love - cradled - my weary mind with a gentle breeze.
  
  Oh that is exactly how I felt inside - with knowledge that God would start working for me in my situation and I felt a breeze in the courtyard where I was standing in the hot muggy night of July.
  
  Our great Shepherd is faithful and still delivers;
  Follow his leading to Restoration Rivers.
  
  AMEN.
  
  I with great rejoicing told this other wonderful believer of the affirmation and confirmation this poem did for me and sent her a copy.
  
  Now a poem for you.
  
  Again in the context of the poet Laureate of the moment I have chosen Robert Bly. Robert Bly is a Poet Laureate from Minnesota. He is one of only a few poets who have actually implemented the Urdu form of poetry into his work - Urdu is so fascinating because it is the language that is very polished and refined - it developed as the language for the poets in the Mogul Courts. There is a form called a Ghazal. It is poetry especially designed for music among the Muslim people from Eastern Iraq - across Iran - Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Many Ghazals are love poems - in Persian it means "to flirt with a woman".
  
  In this poem he uses Ghazal - (pronunciation ghoozel) structure - In its classic form, each stanza stands alone–has its own landscape, so to speak–and the theme of the poem is never stated. So the reader has much more to do than he would be used to in the contemporary English poem. When the ghazal has its full development, each stanza in a given poem ends with the same word. This poem has 18 lines much like a ghazal.
  
  In reference to your remark on how you are wired to weep with tears I thought this poem addresses the wonder of tears and the inspiration that brings those forth. The other reason I chose Bly is that he writes a lot about men failing to express themselves freely. Here is a quote from him: "Many men numb themselves so they're not expressive. If you're too expressive in IBM, you get fired. And, so the reason we tell stories and when we have groups we recite poetry, read poetry to them for an hour before we go on to anything, that's expressiveness being able to do that. " I think that reflects your sentiment as well.
  
  Dawn
  Some love to watch the sea bushes appearing at dawn,
  To see night fall from the goose wings, and to hear
  The conversations the night sea has with the dawn.
  
  If we can't find Heaven, there are always bluejays.
  Now you know why I spent my twenties crying.
  Cries are required from those who wake disturbed at dawn.
  
  Adam was called in to name the Red-Winged
  Blackbirds, the Diamond Rattlers, and the Ring-Tailed
  Raccoons washing God in the streams at dawn.
  
  Centuries later, the Mesopotamian gods,
  All curls and ears, showed up; behind them the Generals
  With their blue-coated sons who will die at dawn.
  
  Those grasshopper-eating hermits were so good
  To stay all day in the cave; but it is also sweet
  To see the fenceposts gradually appear at dawn.
  
  People in love with the setting stars are right
  To adore the baby who smells of the stable, but we know
  That even the setting stars will disappear at dawn.
  
  
  To Lonnell - May you weep at the dawn of the day of His Return - Christ's Triumph.
  
  
  
  Matt Miller
• 

  Matt Miller July 3, 2008 at 5:44am

  dear brother and Witness,
  Grace and Peace,
  
  I have read your last comment several times and have been moved by the incredible pathos in your words and am thankful with deep reverence for your life.
  
  I got particullary blessed with Uncle Prince and your poem for him.
  The poet and the orator alike write and herald their words with the hope and an expectation that those that hear know what is said but sometimes the intended hearers misses it all through the obstruction and distortion of filters and thus cannot hear that which is said or the true intent of what is said.
  
  So it may have been when you first read your poem on Uncle Albert for your family and yet others or another later truly saw your thankfullness for a man that survived and lived his life with the freedom to do it his way and how God blessed his wonderful resilliancy.
  
  I wonder -- if the prophets and poets of the old time when thery wrote down their words ( and their own knowlege was incomplete ) and yet after they finished recording could they not have felt frustrated and resigned to not know who would read and understand?
  
  There is a poem written in Urdu by a poet.
  Urdu is a major language of my native country where I was born - India.
  
  Unintelligible
  
  When I compose verses,
  my pen writes on the wall of tomorrow,
  
  Words like flowers
  in the color of blood.
  
  But alas!
  
  Theres none to read
  or understand this language.
  
  Ahmad Nadeem Quazimi
  
  In so many ways it is if we understand and have communion with we are saying to each other. A brother true indeed.
  Paul writes to identify with those you share and fellowship with. To become all things to many that he might win some.
  Often that means you have to cross cultural lines and see the heart - that heart that is common - an appetitie for a good meal and true friendship.
  I rejoice.
  
  Your sharing on the heart is really wonderful and I am looking forward to sup with your thoughts on that subject.
  
  The heart is where it all starts.
  The Sanskirt word for that which is original is praktri - the original copy the true DNA of our soul - the heart - that which is nature.
  
  There are three forces flow out of us as independent self willed individuals - from the original seat of our soul - Satvas which is intelligent and noetic activity - RAJAS which is passionate and compulsive activity and TAMAS which is ignorant and impotent lethargy.
  
  Jonah who initially was lethargic in his call to God
  compared to Peter who was RAJAS all the way - compulsive, passionate - full of activity - and then Paul who exhibited SATVAS on Mars Hills with sheer brilliance.
  
  Jesus Christ who had no TAMAS at all gives us a spiritual genetic DNA (praktri) that conquors lethargy and ignorance and spritual impotence with dynamic intelligence and passionate inspired activity when we "hear" his divine calling.
  
  Matt Miller

  Web Server's Default Page
• 

  Matt Miller June 30, 2008 at 7:23am

  Dear Lonnell,
  The reason the previous post is so interesting is that no church has been discovered dating earlier than the third century.
  
  St George is the earliest church known. There was one other one in the early third century as well.
  
  The other interesting thing is that having been in Israel and toured the holy sites - I and my dad noticed a certain amount of competition and jeoulousy between the Jordainians and the Israelies. There is a lot of competition for religous tourism but Israel has always had the premier pilgrim sites. Most of these sites highlight the jewish heritage but little of the early Christian church heritage.
  
  This is a real feather in the cap for the Jordanians and the monarchy really wants to develop this area - for tourism.
  The Jews are pissed off and would really like it to go away.
  
  Any evidence of early Christian - especially first century Christian faith is further proof that Peter's sermon "You crucified him! and the KING OF THE JEWS who was raised from the dead could have happened.
  
  They seem determined still to make sure Jesus stays behind the rolled stone - they can accept his life but not his resurrection - the muslims cannot accept his execution -
  
  even his place of execution and ressurection is divided by two geograhic points for the same events - which puts doubts in Christian pilgrims minds.
  
  For for more details on this story here is a link:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7446812.stm
  
  Matt Miller

  川嶋あいファンサイト“Century”
• 

  Matt Miller June 29, 2008 at 8:33pm

  Dear Lonnell,
  
  I thought this might bless you - it did me - quite a story: The author is Terry McCarthey - ABC journalist.
  
  
  An archaeologist in Jordan claims to have found the earliest-known Christian church anywhere in the world.
  
  Archaeologist believes he's found it.
  I read this online in the Jordan Times while I was next door in Iraq. What was any self-respecting journalist with a persistent pull of curiosity about the world going to do?
  
  
  So I soon found myself on the road from the Jordanian capital, Amman, to the northern town of Rihab, to meet Dr. Abdul Qader al-Housan, one of the country's top archaeologists. He has been working in the Rihab area for eight years now, and has found 30 churches there, mostly from the Byzantine period that stretches from the fourth to the seventh century. After that Islam sweeps through the region.
  
  
  Qader is a charming and highly educated man. He studied in Istanbul and in addition to Arabic, Turkish and English, he also speaks or reads Greek, Latin, Aramaic and Nabbatean. Tall, bearded and rangy, he speaks with a great rush of words as if he cannot contain the excitement of all his discoveries.
  
  
  He took me to a site ringed by a wire fence with a guard. There were some remains of a brick building with Roman columns, mosaics on the floor.
  
  "This is the church of St. Georgeous (St. George)" he said. "Third Century AD."
  
  
  Very beautiful, but this is not what we came to see.
  
  
  About a year ago, while he was working on St. Georgeous, his workmen found a hollow-sounding spot. They dug down about two feet and found an old air shaft that opened out into a subterranean compartment.
  
  
  
  They excavated further and uncovered a series of rooms hollowed out from a cave, one of which appeared to have an altar.
  
  
  Qader knew that many early Christians had fled Jerusalem to what is now northern Jordan to escape Roman persecution in the first century AD. Could this underground dwelling and worship space be from that time?
  
  
  He started carefully collecting and studying debris from the floor of the cave. There were pottery shards and copper coins. He got more and more excited.
  
  It appeared that some of the artifacts indeed came from Jerusalem. And he was able to date some of the coins to 70 A.D., when Herod Antippus, son of the Herod who ruled at the time of Jesus, was around.
  
  I am no archaeologist, and I am sure there are others who will want to peer review Dr. Abdul Qader's findings, which is as it should be.
  
  
  But I am a journalist, and I know what makes a good story. Sitting in a church built in a cave holding money that was used 2,000 years ago — now that is pretty amazing.
  
  
  
  But Dr. Abdul Qader wasn't finished. He said he has a theory that after Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, he and his mother Mary may well have passed through Rihab on their way back to Galilee. It is highly plausible.
  
  
  Rihab lies along the old Roman road that once ran all the way from Yemen through what is now Saudi Arabia and Jordan to Damascus, and was the main thoroughfare east of the Jordan River. It might also explain why there were so many early Christian churches built in Rihab.
  
  
  He cannot prove that theory — not yet. But his stories and historical knowledge brought this ancient part of the world alive to me. I cannot wait to hear what he digs up next!
  
  Matt Miller
• 

  Matt Miller June 28, 2008 at 3:16pm

  That was an amazing piece of work - that piece of work formed from your heart but was more than that - I still can't find the words for it but know that it is working in my soul but that I will keep and read again until it ferments into wisdom. It had power - it told a story too which made it so interesting - I read it and could identify myself with Uncle Prince in some ways.
  
  Are there not elements of an Uncle Prince in some relative or friend of a relative? Such a good poem because of the identification - not only with the Uncle Prince but with the author - the poet.
  
  Ah the theme of survivor hood - can one survive like your uncle without the grace of God? - God loved that man. And I believe there is something to be said about God's blessings on family and relatives in many seemingly inexplicable ways for the sake of one Standing on His Promises - one that not only stands but a doles to His Will.
  
  
  As you looked over that long wharf on the island where perhaps your ancestors left their native land sold into slavery and as you were among those of your ancestor 's home I think of this line of poetry from a Senegal poet who became its first president:
  
  You guard this place, that is closed to any feminine laughter, to any mortal smile.
  You purify the air of eternity, here where I breathe the air of my fathers.
  
  
  Ah So many left that island - I know - I studied it.
  The Gate of no Return.
  
  That brings to mind somehow Jesus in the Garden before he was led captive by the Roman soldiers and temple guards to never see freedom again until God rolled the stone away. His gate of no Return was his final recorded statement as a free man to His Father: Father not as I will but as thou Wills.
  
  
  So God has His Ways.
  So The Poet Says:
  
  Now turn your immobile eyes towards your children who have been called
  And who sacrifice their lives like the poor man his last garment
  So that hereafter we may cry 'here' at the rebirth of the world being the leaven that the white flour needs.
  For who else would teach rhythm to the world that has died of machines and cannons?
  For who else should ejaculate the cry of joy, that arouses the dead and the wise in a new dawn?
  Say, who else could return the memory of life to men with a torn hope?
  
  Taken from:
  Senghor, "Prayer to Masks"
  
  Your friend and brother (may God continue to breathe into our friendship)
  Matt