Prancing Grace

Prancing Grace

Tristam Joseph

Smashwords Edition

Text copyright 2017

All Rights Reserved

ISBN 978-0-9619272-9-5

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Other Writings

Prancing Grace

Jove:  God created me to enjoy this world, its good things of life, acknowledging all His work is good, none suffering from being blemished, so no human decree can admonish me for reveling with satisfaction and happiness, or being pleased with fruits of my toil, and I rejoice in His gift to bless me so, never letting fear drive me to relinquish my pleasure. Trusting to remember He never made me fear, knowing fear may muddle His determination for my destiny, plans already foreordained by Him. Fear is never of His doing but concocted by an evil one, instilling me with lies, deceiving me to believe my fate can be altered.

Stranger:  I see your face, radiant with happiness, shining with self-satisfaction, but do you know Jesus, humbling yourself to hear His voice, submitting to His spiritual callings, refusing to follow your reason and common sense, gaining oneness with Him with every moment counting, discovering union with Him matters, becoming like Him more than you could ever imagine, walking with Him to remake yourself in His image? Can you become like Jesus who never failed and was never discouraged, attending to needs of depressed people verging on despair?

Jove:  I know Jesus, venerating and worshipping Him in ways I trust. What do you hope for by intruding in thoughts of someone you don't know, thinking to witness Jesus and disrupt me with aims to add to your treasures in heaven? 

Stranger:  But do you know Jesus, confessing Him as Lord and Savior, needing nothing more than the words of His companion, the thief on a cross?

Jove:  I am not committed to anyone preaching what they will do for me or what someone has done for them, training me to be like them, cloning me to follow them, as I am already devoted to proclaiming the Lamb of God, sealed in my soul and protected by my faith, trusting He takes away the sin of the world. 

Stranger: But do you witness as I do now, proclaiming His charge to spread God's message throughout the world? 

Jove:  Trusting joy to make my day complete, praising the Lord that it would not wither away, knowing it will wane without attention, commits me to renew devotion to Him every morning, waking to Him from dreams formed by darkness, visions toying with my self’s estimations, rising up, chasing fantasy away, greeting what the Lord has waiting for me, eagerly to pour out His Spirit on me, restoring my joy in great measure, higher than treasures of silver or gold, making each day His, days of the Lord, coming with garments of increasing satisfaction. 

Stranger:  Trusting in their own convictions, people have developed many discordant factions, multitudes within multitudes, peering at other's beliefs, judging error for all but their own, making criticism their business, examining other's eyes for blemishes, mangling truths with their thoughts and words, forgetting what the Lord says, praying to His Father that all would be united. Having been taught by your religion to trust no one else's beliefs, criticizing all but your own, tolerating no other religious dogma, claiming them all to be heresy, does this leave you much time for anything else, for possibly loving anything you hate, knowing hatred must consume much of your activity? 

Jove:  He who knows my works, fruits of my labor, patiently discerning and testing all my deeds, the all-knowing God watches all my moves, recognizing my thoughts before my knowing, and He will always find me lacking, never meeting His expectations and hopes for me, calling me on blasphemy when disobeying the Holy Spirit, questioning my wisdom when considering thoughts other than His. Will He overlook human's plans and doctrines never quite confirming to His, accepting their modifications, hoping He will find our compromises as trivial, recognizing our lamenting as real, truly from our heart, needing no outward manifestations, understanding they may feign our true convictions, artificial demonstrations of wailing and weeping, fasting, destroying garments laden with sin, hidden accumulations of violence still in our flesh? Repentance is noticed with skepticism by others, but only the Lord knows if it bears any sincerity. He must expect more than what you propose.

Stranger:  Fallen with incontestable sins, born with a choice to be no other, drowning in guilt, your only hope for salvation is to obey the Lord, and that is my conviction.

Jove:  Trained to believe everyone is burdened with guilt, taught to trust no one is innocent, saddling all with consequences of original sin, reasoning they must be guilty and deserve some form of punishment, we learn to hate others, detesting their my-selves enough to inflict punishment they deserve, killing all to remove those stained by hatred, removing them from remembrance, leaving none to be forgiven by faint hearts, destroying any who could be judged innocent and virtuous, coming back to haunt a killer's decision, agonizing whether justice would ever return to punish them with remorse. 

Stranger:  I can't accept evil, seeing its appearance veiled in goodness, confusing my feeble discernment overwhelmed with uncertainty, hastening me to quick decisions, shouting at me to silence patience, urging on its call to action. 

Jove:  Confidence in one's theology makes one a saint or an idiot, prepared to victimize another with oppressive demands, never knowing the truth of their convictions. Since you invaded my space, thrusting a question on my beliefs, I deserve an answer to yours. What must I be to be acceptable before your God?

Stranger:  You must accept Christ as your Lord and Savior, acknowledging Him to be in your heart, be baptized by immersion, and accept the Holy Bible to be infallible, all its words coming from God, sanctifying you to join His church and preach the Bible, His Words documented by apostles two thousand years ago and faithfully guarded since, guaranteeing your righteousness to assure salvation.

Bystander:  Intolerance may be lurking, waiting to seize an opportunity, swooping down to claim a victim for destruction, ready to kill anyone committed to tolerance, recruiting religious fanatics creating godly laws, developing decrees to please their followers, legislating rules for all to uphold, determining judgments for convicting the guilty, destroying the disobedient, rejecting heretics claiming righteousness sanctified by their truths, tolerating nothing but their decrees, established by prophets in conflict with Christ's teachings.

Jove:  What can be worse, magnifying evil by raising up a free-willed person boasting a super-righteous mentality, arming one to be a wanton warrior, wielding a double-edged sword with unwavering convictions, absolute and beyond anyone's evaluation, never questioned unless with the threat of death? Knowing no tolerance for ones never restraining their will, none for people falling short of complete righteousness, their intolerance is ready to kill, destroying all those committed to understanding. 

Skeptic:  Oppression allies with righteousness opposing free will, scrutinizing everyone's moments, memorizing all their actions, evaluating freedom's inclinations to ridicule eternal decrees, multiplying consciences to suffer, entangling people in an inescapable joyless web, promising no recourse, only futility, seeking to herd winds and drive impossible changes. Oppression's masters, lords of righteousness seize freedom's rights, assuring oppression will last and be complete, minimizing all people's inclinations to rubble, to be hidden but latent, waiting to be aroused by anything capable of transforming one's deplorable state.

Jove:  Oppression is essential to prevent anarchy, stifling humans' natural tendencies, all with ideas for improving life but seldom agreeing to accommodate differing views and sometimes resorting to violence for sealing their agenda. Measure their lamentation's agony for judging what oppression is needed to maintain servility but insufficient for provoking revolt. Always adjust righteousness to sanctify your actions or seize greater freedom for doing what's necessary, knowing righteousness justifies deeds mandated by our decrees, and liberating your will frees you to do whatever is necessary.

Skeptic:  You are free, willed to establish yourself, to decide your truths surpass all others, to seal their validity, making you right with yourself so you can remove all restraints on your freedom to act, permitting unhindered exercises, judging all options to convince your activities to establish righteousness. Without oppression, one loses control, leaving them to become victims of someone or something else.

Stranger:  My righteousness must exceed that of others, priests and ones most holy, but which ones must I compare with, how much must I exceed their sanctity, weighing me down with many questions, leaving me with only Christ to measure my righteousness, agonizing my soul, knowing my efforts will always fall short. 

Jove:  God gives us free will, never expecting us to be His dummies, but ones most holy demand an obedience that ignores our freedom to choose, convincing us to follow them or suffer, frightening anyone serving their wants, destroying freedom with their absolute authority, exercising power not even God forces upon us, come with me or else. Despite their absolute decrees, never knowing whether I accept any, I can choose who will rule over my life without other's knowing, hiding the Holy Spirit in my soul, giving Him complete dominion over my beliefs, without submitting to other's demands, without swearing allegiance to anyone's domination. Other's insistence on obedience I acknowledge as deceitful, shrouded with the gentle insistence on acquiescence, bowing before suggestions without acknowledging them to be my master, denying them to guide my thoughts.

Stranger:  You reject submission to the Lord's decrees? God showed me the importance of obedience, demanding retribution for disobedience, primarily to protect His people, restricting them from marrying ones outside His chosen ones, and crushing unchosen people that might contaminate His blessed ones. He also taught us never to bring blemished offerings to the altar, so we must be committed to weeding out anyone blemished, learning from Him the ones tarnished and tainted with imperfections should be rejected from society, pagans of disorder, casting them out like lepers. So, you see, God teaches us a lot, training us how to cope in a chaotic world. We learned this all from Hebrew history, and how He eventually rejected them, giving the world reason to despise them, proven by how He has rejected them for several thousand years.

Jove:  Your zeal for God is based on little understanding and hardly much of His goodness, developing your righteousness on what you imagine will suffice, never being submitted to Him for approval, relying on selected biblical decrees for justification, ignoring most delivered by Moses, compelling you to live by God's laws, never opening your soul to true righteousness filling your heart to live by. Your righteousness should not be tainted with shame, jeopardizing what God can offer your ways, imprinting your thoughts with prophetic convictions, never needing to call on Him, using trusted advisors, telling what you want to hear. 

Stranger:  You suffer, following the impossible, trying to satisfy the Lord, never being like my followers who suffer little, assured of their salvation, trusting God's way to follow me, needing nothing more than to follow His decrees.

Jove:  You miss hearing any gospel of peace, bringing glad tidings of God's goodness, beauty brought by proclaimers of His Word, by prophets you never call on, messengers you dismiss as not reinforcing your law, the epitome of your truth, making you the agent for judging people disobedient in chasing after gain, failing to secure redemption by trusting in your fantasy of righteousness, never understanding the just must live by faith, repenting for their misgivings, rejecting confidence in human wisdom rather than the Lord's.

Stranger:  I suffer nothing in following the Lord, for what others view as suffering can never disturb me, never experiencing its manifestations, having no anxiety of ones afflicted, as I serenely walk with Him, without others' travails, for what you consider suffering I will never know, and your sympathy for all my circumstances is wasted, never needed, never wanted because you will then tempt me to justify self-pity, making me like others seeking comfort for something my Lord doesn't want, trying to explain a basis for suffering from my circumstances, but I am always placed to magnify His glory.

Jove:  How can you increase His glory, magnifying One who is perfect, being at His greatest glory? Do you think a measly human can accomplish that, surely being a manifestation of your vanity, or does God's vanity expect this measure from one of His human creatures, increasing glory for a perfect being?

Bystander:  Who makes decisions on sin, determining what is evil, making judgments on salvation, seeing this is what's critical in stranger's question, asking Jove about his fate after life here? Where do humans find the basis for what to call evil? Astounded by what they wish never to see, they call it evil, a designation made by their judgment, addressing its decision to God or Satan, springing evil on them for no sound reason, waiting for retribution to reward their righteousness. God, the Creator, making no excuses for evil, none being of His doing, provides humans with a scapegoat, Satan, tempting them to evil, giving them one unseen to blame their misdeeds on and absolve them of guilt.

Jove:  Created to be the will of God, I need not ask Him what His will is for me to seek what is implanted from my conception, plans unfolding by His direction, patiently counseling me, trusting no temptation would divert me from His love, no evil requiring a scapegoat for I am eternally bonded to Him, on only Him, needing no imaginations to call on anyone else but Him, asking no one to reveal a different way, no temptation to change the program for following Him. 

Jurdan:  Acknowledge nothing but science to trust your inherent code for everything, thanking evolution for its development, and rely on it for all your gifts.

Jove:    Focusing only on Stranger's convictions, demanding recruits must follow, compelling their thoughts to be satisfying, discarding my ideas, frees anxiety to seize me, confusing me in discerning others' decrees, so I cannot focus on my Lord, praying to Him when Stranger's disturbing dogmas intrude, disrupting my time with Him, forcing me to contemplate human claims.

Stranger:  What do you profit from all your labors, considering the rewards they would bring, working to restore order from chaos, discovering something different to claim the prize, but realizing too late there is nothing new under the sun, nothing to change your destiny, toiling until the end, storing up treasures for others to enjoy, finally realizing you are not unique among others, others remembering you only momentarily before they set out for you, laboring to create an existence new under the sun, driven by vanity that is also nothing new, fulfilling how you were created to be, chasing after wisdom never knowing its grief, seeking knowledge unaware of the sorrow it brings. Enjoy pleasures from your labors for it soon ends when you discover too much inflicts one with despair, sending you to numb its pain, something to release one from what is under the sun, to acquaint one with the folly of chasing all that is under the sun. Discovering all this is true, folly is not exempt for one acquiring wisdom for they are last to realize, wisdom of their making adds nothing new under the sun. When you realize this, you will find no justification for your creation, consoling you with only hatred, triggering your despair, asking why was I born. 

Jove:  Then labor must be lost when seeking gain, showing us to work only for supplying needs, shunning work rewarding us with unneeded spoils, ones never required for a life of enjoyment, leaving us satisfied with what nature provides, peaceful contentment which your way can hardly provide, so I can never look at my way or yours for decisions, being committed to Jesus and belonging to His way.

Stranger:  Life's desires and interests consume all people's moments, trusting to reward them with happiness, but eventually discovering they represent life's nothingness. Long after unveiling all that is meaningless, recognizing they can give one only brief moments of happiness, I began listening to God's Words, hearing the Holy Spirit's instruction on becoming holy, developing righteousness, gaining a right relationship with the Lord, abandoning unholiest' drive to seek happiness, restoring holiness He created us to live by, moving us to become more like Him--a progression for which I am given little time, removing hurdles we stumble over, as I circumvented circumstances He placed in my life. Returning me to perfect oneness with Him, I praise and thank Him for making this possible. 

Jove:  You name much to be wished out of existence, judging them perverse and ugly, monstrous and evil, but you can never explain why they were created, seeming to be misfits or mistakes, never knowing how they are an important part of totality, never understanding what would happen if eliminated, discounting any impact it would have on creation's goodness attested to by God. Have you ever considered if any of them detract from creation's goodness and its inherent beauty, never apprehended as beauty in the bad and ugly, in what you might consider evil, mistakes evident in creation? Describing mistakes as blemishes, we think God abhors, wanting only flawless sacrifices to honor Him, evil compromises creation, the way He made it, thinking He would neglect some part of it, making it His mistake. 

Stranger:  Beware of your righteousness, trusting its sufficiency, thinking it protects you, but it can prove to be a curse, recalling holy ones proclaiming their sanctity by indulging in prayers open for all to see, satisfying their vanity, painting their garments with righteousness, but leaving their spirits unchanged, justifying everything coming to their flesh, their experiences crying out but unheard by them: Actions must be integrated with faith, never missing any beat of one's heart, testifying to one's sanctification never missing a stroke, incorporating all one's actions with those of Jesus Christ. 

Jove:  Without sufficient righteousness, seeing you as lacking some, my beliefs are as good as yours, so you can't argue for yours being better, and you must give mine as much space as yours, your truths being no better than mine, existing in our democracy where judgment by peers determines truths all must follow. 

Stranger:  Fear the Lord to understand the blueprint for your life, fear being necessary to keep your eyes on His plans, knowing He reaches out to use fear whenever we stray from Him, resorting to following our way, not His.

Jove:  If I were to fear the Lord, I must listen to your priests, all speaking with twisted tongues, uttering words claimed to be from God, only hearing revelations to sustain my selves, arguing amongst themselves how many angels can occupy the head of a pin, delighting in forked dogmas, creating discordant doctrines never complying with commandments seeking unity. 

Stranger:  Do you never fear the Lord, trusting it is the beginning of understanding?

Jove:  Immobilizing people with fear, freezing them to disable their initiative, paralyzing their incentive is never something I will do, ending me as myself. You invoke what people said when they feared Yahweh, but His words are outdated for people now enlightened, especially on recalling more recent revelations: You are not made for fear to seize your thoughts or actions, and the Lord never forced me to worry, a trusted truth to live by; releasing fear would spell my downfall, ending my hopes, signaling my accomplishment's ending.

Stranger:  Heed my words now, never knowing your next moment with evil insisting on immediate action, cursing reluctance spurred on by patience, promoting fear to seize your direction. 

Jove:  How can I claim oneness in the Lord and support the wishes of this stranger, prying into my beliefs, trusting his words can overwhelm my convictions, proclaiming human dogmas appended to Jesus' Words, drowning out my attention straining to hear God's gentle voice requiring quietness for me to listen, knowing He never needs to shout, speaking to those prepared and waiting to hear, so I must mute the world's distractions, blocking out its pleasing diversions, silencing its music, enabling my attention to be refurbished, reawakening my soul to make room for receiving His messages, never looking back to what once was, never freezing me to be a zombie of my memories, but freeing me to become a praise to God.

Bystander:  You both seek ones deep in their own wisdom, ardently cultivated to lead their thoughts, relying on self-sufficient reasoning, dependent on tenuous senses, weakened and fragile, easily broken, readily washed away, waiting to be replaced by some enticing dogma, while you never choose any truth embedded in eternal wisdom, resistant to change, ridiculing human doctrines, failing to maintain God's wisdom and proclaim His glory. Some never cease speaking until their heads are removed, thinking that silencing their tongue will destroy their convictions, but their soul continues to cry out although ones celebrating their demise can never hear them, being deaf without any conscience, rulers thinking their wisdom can embellish the earth, but their spirit has no intentions other than fomenting evil, decorating the earth with chaos, bringing all to destruction, exercising the mind of a crooked servant. 

Jurdan:    Believing you craft wisdom, molding it to fashion peace, ignoring reason and common sense, trusting they can offer little help, compels you to find help elsewhere, imagining it must hide somewhere. 

Stranger:  We have a message of assurance, promising peace and the only way to salvation, inviting all to attend, bearing only a fragment of its truths, and count me only for being the messenger, bringing words you may have never heard before. 

Jove:  You tell me to believe and I will be saved, after dedicating my whole life to Jesus Christ and needing nothing more, convincing me to hear some Albert, listening to someone speak on the necessity of evidence to believe, some truth that is likely to vanish in the night, making me unsure of the belief God places in my heart, thinking some human can interject other convictions to strengthen my faith. On hearing an eye-witness account and trusting its validity, do I need more to believe, making me like a skeptic Pharisee who needs another miracle to believe. My belief is more than for today, never needing another reassurance tomorrow to resurrect it from being questioned by any dreams wandering through the night.

Bystander:  People have always needed to apologize for beliefs born with little proof, far-fetched miracles, for no one wants to be shamed by recognizing and trusting the unseen.

Stranger:  Do people struggle to be righteous, following every nuance of the law, being obedient to every decree, upholding doctrines, worshipping dogmas as truth, but never asking what motives and aspirations lurk, unspoken, never revealed to tarnish any righteousness established by their doings. Only by having Christ within can one's tainted hidden secrets be washed away, unveiling and freeing the Holy Spirit to ensure Christ lives in them, working to restructure their free will, instructing on how to follow the code God created them to have, making them one after His heart, exemplifying His goodness manifested in the beauty of all He does. 

Jove:  Many people abandon all consent to being, wishing to leave this world, blinded to creation's beauty and goodness, praying to terminate bonds with a home regarded as depraved and hopeless, trusting they will leave for something better, but if God created this world with His goodness, unrestricted in its harmonious beauty, how can He create something better, having used all His goodness in building our present home? Does He hold back some of His goodness, conserving some to patch up errors made here, saving more to create a better place to assign humankind, transferring them from a site of relative to one of absolute beauty?

Bystander:  God creates, pouring out His fullness, spreading forth His beauty, distributing His goodness, using creation to express His joy, pent up, waiting to create time, choosing the moment to be right, and who can say His accomplishments are imperfect, flawed for unknown and unacceptable reasons, provoking human judgments to distrust Him, disbelieving His love, condemning beliefs He creates everything good, filled with beauty and united in harmony. 

Stranger:  People disbelieve the goodness and beauty of our existence, disputing its virtues, believing the cosmos conceals places where we could live better, and we trust in such a place, calling it heaven where can have our lives restored and live in bliss. How can anyone deny this with both scientists and religious followers certain God created such a paradise for humans deserving something better than they have? 

Bystander:  God creates all to be united in harmony, in ways people do not fully understand, recognizing nothing stands by itself, accepting nothing exists alone, for He determines every object, from the smallest particle to the entire cosmos, each in relationship with all others, synchronized in harmonic concert, never disrupted unless by human doings unraveling creation's proportional beauty. Why would our Creator plan for our world to be dysfunctional, without the consonance of all else He had done, and tease us by verifying we are righteous if we accept Him as Savior before we can leave for a better place? 

Jove:  What is the job description for one to be righteous, attesting to what truth?

Stranger:  Selecting one honest and suitable for achieving God's goals must be to assure those chosen never to waver from His laws and unflinchingly obey enforcement of all that is sacred.

Jove:  How can you be confident that revelations claimed to be His laws are beyond doubt His truths? 

Stranger:  We are careful to base everything on God's commands, and meticulously evaluate everyone's actions, judging they conform and authorize us to penalize disobedient people. 

Jove:  Can you be sure of knowing God's wishes and what His judgments are for disobedience?

Stranger:  Everyone knows His laws and all the actions He has taken throughout history for sinners.

Jove:  But can you be certain of His truths or are they merely projections of human truths, fashioned by philosophers to be suited for their time?

Stranger:  What's important is for our followers to believe that messages from God enforce His truths.

Jove:  That makes your most righteous leader the enforcer, a messenger stronger than anyone else, including you, making you his lackey.

Stranger:  Not at all. We control most righteous ones, making their primary obedience to us while conceding their obedience must appear for all as being to God.

Jove:  Are punishments demanded for disobedient ones of a person's choosing?

Stranger:  Never. Every punishment has already been authorized by God. Where He determines death for many minor missteps, our enforcers' decisions are kinder and gentler, exacting penalties short of terminating lives, thereby making them more benevolent than God, the feared executioner of ancient times.

Jove:  You describe a deity with little capacity to love, creating humans for torment, disgusted with their being.

Stranger:  Love has no place for creators protecting their work to ensure its survival, intolerant of people exercising free will to destroy any aspect of God's creation, never enduring all their actions, ignoring unacceptable deeds damaging what has been done. We believe the Lord's actions epitomizes His love, creating all out of love.

Jove:  If He creates out of love, loving every result of His work, how can He accept the justice of enforcers disowning any disobeying His laws?

Stranger:  Our enforcer serves God's interests as we execute His plans.

Jove:  Do you ever question this strategy?

Stranger:  God's judgment of the world would be meaningless if He imposed no vengeance, exacted no retribution, reprimanding humans only with words, spoken for them to ignore. No one is righteous, no not one, compelling us to acknowledge our weaknesses evident in living by our will, claiming questionable righteousness to flaunt over others, trusting them to accept our wishes, convincing them to acknowledge our goodness, instilling fear to obey our commands, the decrees established to know their sinfulness, for by laws they will know their iniquity, understanding the maker of statutes and judgments required for justice comes only from righteous ones. The more laws we can justify, the greater righteousness one can claim.

Jove:  You disrupted my thoughts of a simple question with little elaboration, layering it with many conditions, doctrines, and dogmas demanding obedience, decrees likely to be unending. Righteousness must claim tolerance for everything, limiting enacted decrees to release people from your doctrine's restraints.

Stranger:  We tolerate what conforms to our goals, justifying only laws of faith announced in our deeds, renouncing belief in contrived human decrees. 

Jove:  Thus, you justify as righteous any beliefs conforming to your laws, securing salvation by obedience to their way.

Stranger:  Our followers learn to do what they are told, so must unrighteous ones respond to those righteous, dismissing any reservations, patiently waiting for assurances they hear for truths.

Jove:  Faith in God counts for our righteousness, faith being reckoned for believing in Him, distrusting many disgraceful humans claiming to be righteous, compelling us to use gifts He gave us, ordaining us to be leaders, using our free choice to honor Him with deeds, doing nothing that He would not do. If faith can impute us with righteousness, sealing in us His virtues, voiding all human decrees, we could commit no transgressions, knowing none without our laws. 

Jurdan:  Virtue can be a dangerous commodity, potentially harmful to any cause, because no virtue is ever perfect, free from error in being a human product, and virtue can impede any doing, stalling causes before they begin. 

Stranger:  Virtue can thereby be a messenger, proclaiming defects in human causes, showing us to look elsewhere for what virtue can bless. We honor virtue by listening to and obeying the Holy Spirit, trusting only in Him, revealing dishonor in individual projects. What virtue can we claim if we disobey Him, blaspheming the Holy Spirit, choosing to silence His words?

Jurdan:  Virtue remains only for judging relationships with others and is relative, determined by people's traditions and culture, hardly accepted for relationships with your Lord, acknowledging they are also reflections of religious traditions and culture, so tolerance becomes a standard for virtue, accepting another's beliefs as valued as one's own. 

Stranger:  We maintain ancient laws, decrees for our followers, traditions established by our faith, protecting them from transgressions, assuring no heresy against our teachings.

Jove:  Some will develop the deepest faith in God, trusting any allegiance to you would be secondary, believing you could never be worthy of the adoration He deserves, recognizing the Creator as different, bursting with love on recognition of creation's goodness, seeing its beauty with no bounds. How could you attract anyone so fearless in such in such belief?

Stranger:  Trust me. I deny deceit for our way, planning no evil to achieve its goals, never relying on vanity to conceive injustice, but enemies devise intentions for opposition, jeopardizing all we try to do for them. Despite their unbelief in rejecting our way, we show mercy to all who abandon their heresies and adopt our convictions, trusting what is good and required of them, to do justly by our terms, and they will love the mercy we shower on them will walk humbly under our strength's umbrella.

Jove:  Your thoughts wander, unable to reply with reason, speaking unprofitable words, following illusions of your making, so few will ever count on you, having been marked with toleration for nothing but your way, rejecting others as never having the right amount of righteousness and practicing it with too much or too little free will. 

Stranger:  Faith serving people in your manner would not survive under our doctrines, forcing us to ostracize anyone with such convictions, and we urge them to concentrate their hope on nothing but our proclamations to prepare for their life's ending with assurance of redemption and hope of resurrection into a new world, as Christ promised the thief crucified with Him, I will see you in paradise, and if they don't buy deathbed conversions we will have already tried to convince them that anyone dying with Jesus in their heart will immediately enter paradise, promising them more delights than they ever received here.

Bystander:  If God created everything by His word, judging it all good, testifying to the beauty of its goodness, what more came with His Word becoming flesh, calling One to be His Son, unique and sinless, the manifestation of His Logos, wondering if Adam, created by His Word was also innocent before temptation began the fall, giving him free will, but never protecting him as done for Jesus, giving him only laws to live by until they failed. Adam had goodness as all creation, with beauty testifying to it, but free will gave him the vision to see things differently from God, insights to do all things his way, never consulting the Father, becoming his person. Despite this, Adam's goodness remained, but he was blinded to its beauty, deciding he could determine beauty of his own, ignoring that of God's, but he failed to harmonize the goodness of his being with the dubious beauty he created. Engaging free will, are you more like Adam, deciding your goodness can fashion beauty to your liking?

Jove:  Trusting in only what we can see, faith is ignored, anything unseen is rejected, preventing any possible harmony between the visible and invisible, so God's goodness is dismissed as well as its beauty, giving humans the prerogative to determine beauty. Belief in signs, always looking for ones to establish faith, using them as fleeces to move one's will, was ridiculed by Jesus, seeing Pharisees asking for one more sign to prove one's prophetic power, convincing observers that only seeing to believe can be trusted. Seeing to believe must be in harmony with faith for convictions of God's reality, and strong faith, relying on truths in eyewitness accounts, never needs any seeing to strengthen belief, affirmation of creation's goodness and its inherent beauty. 

Stranger:  Being born again, never happening through other's words or a fleece to quell quivering trust, reborn to see my Savior, freeing me from sinning, transfigured to acknowledge God's majesty controlling all creation, His supreme sovereignty is never questioned again. 

Jove:  So you claim to be free from sinning, remembering words saying whoever is born of God does not sin. Never sinning includes too much for any human, impossible for any, so by Scripture's words can anyone claim rebirth, being born again of God, knowing we all sin and never cease to sin?

Commoner:  Is there a portion of righteousness able to please the Almighty, satisfying Him with enough that is sufficient, or is this never possible, regarding His pearl of creation as never reaching the goodness of all He created?

Jove:  Must we fret over people claiming to be born again, a new life in Jesus Christ, realizing this testimony seldom agrees with their actions, still committed to their old life, maintaining old ideas, deceiving themselves on being changed, anxious on being shamed by onlookers, restraining the Holy Spirit from making change evident, cautious on leaving darkness to beginning walking only in the light as the Lord is walking in the light, fearful and distressed when choosing to walk with Him?

Bystander:  Called to be born again, followers can claim to be born again, manipulating their conscience to be convinced of being new creations in Christ, but consider how their life can change, adopting a new role for judgment, donning glasses to identify other's unworthy thoughts and deeds, searching everyone's baggage for imperfections waiting to be judged as sin, giving the born again a role to be played, a purpose they claim the Lord calls them to do. 

Jove:  If God is not in me, invited to remain, how can I speak with Him and know how to understand Him or trust Him to participate in my reality, more importantly to grasp His truth, leaving Him to be only imagined, described by untrustworthy prophets repeating their mantra, confronting me repetitious dogma I tire of hearing, begging for obedience, promising me less than the world offers? But God is in me, trusting I am disciplined in obedience, enabling me to see God as He is, becoming real by seeing Him face to face, and joyously proclaiming, In all creation, there is none but Thee. Born again, recreated to witness the Lord's reality, we meet His reality and promised goodness.

Bystander:  You can never reason appropriate purposes for satisfying God, but must wait on Him as He is with you, listening to the Holy Spirit, putting your determinations to rest, contesting nothing He says, following all His commands--even those conflicting with your decisions--to begin a new life with Him, confirming you are born again, resurrected to sin no more, needing no more sacrifices with having Him, freeing you to dwell with Him forever.

Stranger:  We will always need priests, demanding sacrifices, reminding us few are truly born again, questioning all claiming to be born again, one's satisfied by merely declaring faith in the Lord, thinking their proclamation justifies salvation with little effect on their life here and now, continuing to obey laws they have created, ones modified to maintain their innocence. 

Jove:  What justifies being born again other than reward of eternal life? Are there no perks to benefit life here?

Stranger:  The born again can call on God to bless them by enlarging their territory, and He will honor them by increasing their possessions, gilding them to become treasures.

Bystander:  Increasing one's belongings, gilding them to be treasures, magnifies fear and cultivates anxiety by thriving riches, growing them to be prized, consuming all one's thoughts, driving their possession to ignore relationships with people, rejecting others who burden one's moments, dismissing their concerns, concentrating attention on all deemed precious, hardly acknowledging one's time will eventually mandate loss, relinquishing their value to a trash heap, soon to disappear, becoming an artifact marking the past. 

Jove:  Is it better to have much, treasures feared of being lost or stolen, or to be satisfied with little, tempting no one to pilfer other's belongings? Even the most destitute have belongings others wait to steal. If I were naked, some would come to seize my nothingness, seeing my body as a thing to abuse, to amuse their perversions, or to gratify their lusts. Stripped naked I would still have my greatest treasure, dignity no one could destroy, thoughts no one could discover, beliefs no one could destroy, a soul protected from intrusion, perhaps leaving me open to only one fear: invasion of my soul by a virus, sneaking in to attack my beliefs.

Stranger:  Most people are taught to fear, without which we could not be effective, failing to shepherd other's ideas, trying to herd their thoughts, but we know that each of us fears something and this favors our proselytizing, even with brave people, trusting we can invent fears to win their following. All humans must fear the Lord, compel us to promote this anxiety, and sustain it for their peace and our success, following the example of all leaders, acknowledging their way must conform, all at the expense of love if necessary. 

Jove:  Must humans see God in this manner, giving us reason to fear Him, trusting we would not follow without fear?

Stranger:  He sets the standard, establishing a feared punishment for every sin, for all disobedience, knowing humans will follow other gods when they fear no reprisals.

Jove:  What kind of reverence does God demand, acknowledging goodness determines His every act to preserve all His creation? If reverence insists on fear, must we worship Him in fear? If reverence convinces us to honor Him with love, claimed for all His created deeds, should I tolerate anyone eager to judge Him differently? 

Stranger:  We are driven to despise some, blemished by arrogant self-righteousness, out-performing our accomplishments, dressing us down with their brilliance, never accepting righteousness must strike a balance, shaming others with their lofty persona, discouraging the masses' free will, the driver of happiness. Beware of those hiding inside walls of their self-righteousness, separated from others behind their temple gates, lurking in secret, isolated in bastions of illusion, mocking one's proclaiming they are born again.

Jove:  Fear one's with sinister doings, threatening free markets of willfulness, broadcasting anxiety, persuading some to adopt their obedience, deceiving many, decimating their free will to discard reason and common sense, life's foundation of happiness, inviting darkness to cover pursuits of knowledge, leaving them in a quagmire of uncertainty. Their righteousness compels them to write doctrines of truth, established for all to live by, urging all to accept their dogmas as the only truth, installed on altars to ensure vindication for their verity.  

Stranger:  Righteousness demands proportionality, insisting on harmony, requiring equivalence based on creation's goodness evident for all to see, displaying creation's beauty waiting to be acknowledged, understanding the Holy Spirit only reveals its glory, witnessed by those sanctified, accepted and trusted as the work of God.

Jove:  Do you disregard nature's violence, manifested continuously, necessary for God's work, justified by Him, never meant for retribution but understood as inherent in creation’s goodness, although never fathomed as such by reason, making violence an aspect of beauty an oxymoron?

Stranger:  Righteousness never lacks harmony, needing violence for equivalence, defined by ones affected, lacking understanding of God's design, calling our unwanted circumstances episodes of violence on our dignity's goodness. 

Jove:  You must believe violence is not violence but merely a designation for what we abhor, an aberration we are persuaded to be true, a conviction for denying creation's goodness.

Stranger:  Free will, human's blessing to determine their ways, also never lacks harmony, allowing consideration of violence to be an option, including it as a design of creation's goodness, giving human beings the opportunity to determine all their actions.

Bystander:  God completes the circle of harmony, creating people to be righteous and to have free will, even if both carry what some determine is violence, and consider He may design this for remodeling and growing creation, soon forgotten as adversity and eventually recorded merely as events in His story.

Jove:  Calling it violence as we must, accepting it as necessary by God, how much violence is acceptable and who determines what is permissible, adequate for us to grow? Will our words, vehicles for conveying force, be used to make us develop in ways intended by God?

Bystander:  Righteous people assemble their violence, authorizing it by their creeds, mobilizing it to hinder people's freedom, praying litanies to justify judgment, washing their hands to maintain soul's purity.

Wanton:  Wracked with total depravity, sinful with no hope for redemption, rebellious, transgressing, fulfilling the promise of being afflicted from conception, how can one so wicked be transformed to become righteous? Believing righteousness is an impossible goal, can striving for it be worthy, somehow purifying and making me fit for redemption? Purification can never be complete, wiping out violence that once ruled a sinful life, replacing it with love, trusting love conquers all, enduring tolerance as a companion, believing love can accommodate all without discrimination, sometimes compelling it to be tough where human decrees ignore pleas of the faint-hearted, condemning ones breaking the Lord's commandments, stoning people ignoring laws high priests established, destroying what God created, testifying human laws trump the breath of His Words. Remember God tells us to follow Him; do we when a different spirit commands one to end a life prematurely, before that allotted by God?

Bystander:  Peace you crave waits for the unity of mercy and truth, for a reunion of love with faithfulness so righteousness can reap its rewards, encumbered with no traces of violence, purified to embrace enduring peace. Let honesty prevail, asking if any evidence of unnecessary violence persists, delaying righteousness from indwelling your soul?

Jove:  Righteousness is essential for God to be God, but it obligates humans to determine and exact judgments that necessitate violence, leaving one to wonder if greater justice demands greater too.  

Bystander:  Sins coming in strands, unimportant as flimsy filaments, fragments of weakness unable to stir the soul, still count as iniquities, easily dismissed as unmentionables, hiding within until they mount up, accumulating until they can be woven together, forming a whip to inflict oneself with wounds, scarring one's conscience with persisting welts, afflicting one with despair, accumulating threads to form a rope, a noose to destroy the soul, demolishing the Holy Spirit's home. Let no one claim a distinction for sins being little and of no consequence, comparing none to sins preached unpardonable. A sin is a sin, a sin, a sin, accumulating until sinners recognize them as shackles. Every sin bears a tag indicating its association with violence, seeds of destruction concealed from other's, thinking sin is consigned to be removed by a pall-bearer, hiding it never to see the light, saving sinners from being scourged. 

Jove:  Where do you account wickedness to lie, to know where sin can arise? Does any degree of righteousness know where to preclude its coming? What measure of free will allows its being? Can a blend of the two forestall its violence, trusting some righteousness to counter free will's violence of words, breaking one's conscience into pieces, or can such words be condoned, tolerated for silencing evil, even portions of words of a wicked person? Can cease from my wisdom bring me to know this, hearing another calling to win my way?

Bystander:  Many people credit God's nature with both righteousness and violence, responding to beat His creatures into submission when necessary, rewarding those who follow His lead, prompting all to be true to their image of Him.

Jove:  We all innately carry that image of Him trusting it is inherent to our nature, and employ violent means when needed. What discussion is ever free from violence, hearing people thrust arguments to protect their convictions, speaking out to mute differing opinions, disregarding any toll their words may afflict on others. We can't express opinions that never distress someone. We are grounded as beings in violence, showing it with subtle words and behavior or outwardly to destroy what disagrees with our convictions.

Bystander:  We need not be so condemned to violence, hearing the Gospel offer us another way, a peaceable kingdom, embracing creation's unity in its diversity, erasing violence veiling but never obscuring its goodness and beauty, trying to conceal its foundation of love. 

Stranger:  Put on the full armor of God, drawing one's sword to safeguard the beauty of God's wisdom, wielding it to sustain the luster of His truth and protect creation's treasures, distrusting anyone lurking to snatch its possessions, knowing we live in fear or defiance, alternating between despair and defeat, testifying to the fragility of any foundation of love.

Bystander:  Can one be protected from violence of words and deeds with nothing to lose, having given up everything to the Lord, by accepting the gift of His wisdom, being lifted by His goodness, His beauty corrupting one's understanding, leaving it behind, fading one's brightness of reason, in shambles, no longer needing the sword of violence, no longer needing to violate other's souls, their sanctuaries for the Holy Spirit. Drawn swords alert God's attention, ready to spring forth retribution, calling on nature to prepare its wind and fire, its cold, and time for drought, selecting what can shut down people's violence. 

Jove:  Are we so made, discerning violence in all creation's goodness, assigning evil to its consequences, thinking goodness is more than to behold, having actions to distribute circumstances, activity to destroy its beauty, never redoing its aesthetics to enhance its charm, or is evil the rebel interfering with its remodeling?

Jurdan:  We need to restructure what scribes have written, using the pretense of rendering them understandable, for people have changed so much that archaic convictions are no longer tenable and restatement is demanded, seeing unheeded changes spell death for their beliefs. If people don't temper their opinions and words, ideas will be abandoned, shivering in the cold, experiencing the fire extinguished in temples of worship, seeing their homes for the Holy Spirit empty, without any reason to receive His messages, struggling as they try to find meaning for existence. They can go only so far, attempting to search for its reason by satisfying their wants and desires, embellishing all with nothing but relics of futility, no longer being tempted by jealousy, tormenting them with nothingness, compelled to survive in desolation, voided of promising imagination, and indeed, seeing no further abominations of the world, cruel pronouncements of the Creator's Word, telling humans never to fall in love with the world, a creation all gods know we fill with violence, staining any goodness with evil, marring beauty with people's deeds. In distress, they cry to their Lord, beseeching Him as a last resort, but they don't know if He hears them. 

Bystander:  Restructuring God's words promises no answer, preaching different versions being little effective, realizing better interpretations profit few when faithless ones hear them, people dependent on reason, unable to embrace faith for all understanding. 

Jurdan:  Admit the violence people hide, concealed away, waiting to burst forth, to energize words, activate tongues, and vent emotions, satisfying for but a moment, knowing violence never stops growing, accumulating to torch goodness, generated by unclear circumstances. Fear never snares violence, controlling it until too late. We discern what is so objectionable with goodness, committing many to taunt it, threatening it with destruction, and working for its disappearance, reproducing all goodness in aberrations, depicting it as a monstrosity, painting it with blemishes, making it no longer recognizable, transforming goodness into scattered remnants of violence, objects to be highly treasured, prophesying destruction of order, ripping apart goodness into unrecognizable pieces, seeking return of all to chaos. 

Stranger:  I admit to harboring violence, hating whatever people blemish--transformed images of goodness--committing us to destroy all we judge wrong, fabrications created by deviants, knowing their use is to promote intolerable behavior, giving people excuse to question the goodness inherent in our belief, reasoning anarchy to dismiss noble words and beauty's images. 

Bystander:  Must violence be called on for restoring creation's beauty? The darkness of violence to thrive sends out destruction into light, clashing with it all the way, choking out truth it encounters, little realizing with its annihilation nothingness remains, having darkened all light, leaving only chaos to remain, trusting human reason would resurrect everything, its truth proudly confident in its power, redeemed by pleasures sought in darkness, showering people with mercies of their choosing. 

Stranger:  What darkness provides seeing to perceive the unseen, offering silence for ones to hear words of hope, giving understanding to receive the Lord's messages?

Bystander:  Darkness is the author of chaos, the painter of nothingness, ruling the kingdom of nihilism, maintaining all in disarray, all being still nothingness until the Creator intervened with His Word, establishing light as the prelude to molding creation, light for giving us love, justice, forgiveness, and kindness, nourishment for maintaining healthy relationships, interactions never possible with chaos. Our Almighty, the creator of all, encourages us to persevere, calling us to be one like Him, fulfilling His plan for us. 

Stranger:  Entering life to follow my Savior I must be in the world, accommodating its violence, gathered as ancient ashes covering creation's goodness and beauty, but as the Lord taught me, dust falling and clinging to me can be erased, be kicked off my boots, never allowing it to persist and invade my mind, settling as sins to be conserved for heirs, embedding in progeny's innate codes. I will accept no mischief from hearts of ones I love, refusing to hear violence of their tongues, lashing out at peace, disrupting order and tranquility, spewing hatred with lying lips. So, you see why we must be born again by erasing ashes of violence.

Wanton:  Learning from the Lord we initiate violence to seize whatever we desire, seeing what's done by Him can be the pattern for us to follow, justice foremost in His perfection, the major representation of His goodness, relegating mercy and grace to minor importance, trusting them less for creation's preservation, allowing Him to exercise violence when judged to be needed, exercising His prerogative of being an angry God.

Skeptic:  Violence becomes a necessary evil, used by everyone to promote their wants and to silence blemished misfits. Recalling who taught us violence, trusting it was not assigned to us at birth, never innate to our being, we learned it, being a dubious gift of God's teaching, showing how to manage contrarians, creatures disobeying His mandates, by employing vengeance and exacting retribution, being such a prized possession that He claimed it as His, sharing it with no others, proclaiming, Vengeance is mine. 

Wanton:  Violence thrives on intolerance, searching out ones obtrusive in diversity, especially ones so blemished they embarrass us and hinder our existence, requiring they be sequestered, hidden in closets, so why should we accommodate their lives in any way? Justice authorizes terrorism, condoning violence when needed and taught by an angry God.

Bystander:  Then who changed your God, modifying His attributes, changing His ways so the God of vengeance and retribution, judging no one worthy of salvation, could become the God of love, loving all humankind, His creation's crown designed to take part in His goodness, loving people enough that He would tolerate modifications lessening His expectations for them?

Stranger:  It is this Lord of love who stands at our door, knocking, waiting for an answer, a response from one of His creatures, never knowing how one will respond, reminding them to be born again. But our doctrines and dogmas remain unchanged, modified by learned priests to accommodate people's will, transforming God to makings of an angry deity, tolerating little of one's will, never deviating from the God of our fathers. Striving for purity, we must endure little of learned edicts and fulfill spreading His principles of love, tolerating no compromises to please proponents of violence. 

Bystander:  Ambition, no alien to Stranger, is mightier than violence, building up one's beliefs, protecting them from destruction, realizing violence scatters all in disarray, but unblessed activity for gaining success, doing things one's own way, united as one in voice and deed, reaching out from their citadels to become like God, will be scattered, revealing human ambition follows ways of violence, challenging people to discover where it must be formed, where to seek its ways, how to avoid its errors, protecting against its scatter into nothingness, understanding failure can seed destruction, dismantling human hopes, disconnecting one's imaginations that had been in one accord.

Jurdan:  Reaching out to become like God, thinking grace and mercy reflect His attributes, people must remember they have never always been His virtues, reading how scribes understood Him to be in ancient times, ignoring the goodness He proclaimed for creation at its beginning. Realizing He must protect creation's goodness, can there be some other way than unleashing anger and be willing to compromise, preserving the beauty of virtue by some nonviolent means, showing His people that violence is never acceptable retribution, or that retribution is never permissible when goodness offers other responses to unworthy thoughts and deeds, realizing He must become pragmatic. So much for your unchanging God's transformation to please creature's desires.

Stranger:  We know what grace and mercy are, God's virtues clearly explained for our understanding, but do we comprehend the justice we attribute to Him, a human version consigned to Him by us, making His little different from ours, never considering He needs no justice in any form, having something else from our conceptions of how He maintains creation's goodness, having innate recovery systems to assure its protection. Human justice treads on the brink of injustice, following a treacherous course, destroying what appears dangerous, thinking it should be no different for God. 

Jove:  The Lord counts my works, using them to allot His grace, measuring them to determine His mercy, trusting He has criteria for dispersing rewards, honoring the most deserving, choosing me to be a remnant for preserving His truth.

Stranger:  Proclaiming God's righteousness, praising His noblest judgments, trusting His commands are morally right and faithful to His integrity, vowing His laws are eternal truths, trouble and anguish still seize me, never letting me go, leaving delight my only reward for obeying His commandments, driving me to work for salvation, never accepting only by His mercy are we saved, justifying us to be with Him forever despite our foolishness, disobedience and persistence to silence admonitions of the Holy Spirit, the One sent to cleanse our temple of despair, restoring what the Creator had fashioned for His home away from home, sheltering the steward of kindness and love, inviting them into showcase creation's goodness. Jesus Christ renewed us, revealing our unprofitable ways, exploding our convictions we can be saved by upholding the law, subverting beliefs we can be justified by merely sinning no more, removing condemnations by actions we have chosen. My work calls others to be born again.

Bystander:  Accumulating stones to lay a foundation for your temple, trusting it to last, enduring throughout all your trials, ready to accommodate your words, listening to your worship, you forget the Lord formed the rock for your temple, establishing a throne to seat the Holy Spirit, waiting vacant until He is invited in, seating Him in the one seat your soul can offer, reserved for Him, allowing no counterfeit god to move in and seize it, waiting only for your will to act. Stones gathered for your temple's grandeur, building it by yourself, created for enthroning your gods, deluding you to believe they embellish your soul, establishing a fitness gym to develop righteousness, thinking you learn God's ways to prepare you for doing it your way, acknowledging you can never be pure in heart, so you compromise, following your best way, trusting your way can approach His way, never allowing despair to overtake your self-righteousness or futility to destroy your will, never accepting poverty to begin your redemption.

Preacher:  Your soul's foundation would never be developed where God couldn't make its soil holy, even in the worst of times, trusting He determines all our circumstances, calling us to abide in Him, our eternal protector, shielding us in His hiding place. One's foundation must be purified, removing stones cherishing your life, comrades, friends, and kin whose glitter tempt to brighten darkness, polished to maintain your attention, distancing you from sanctification, hiding your unpreparedness for purification, stripping away all you have made yourself to be in preparation to be one with Jesus, closing the door for Him to enter and be one with you, to be more