Arcangel 808: My Struggle to Know and Serve Jesus Christ

Contents

Dedication

Foreword

Malleable

Malleable Ii

Elephants Knocking

Down Trees

Halo 1

Halo 2

Halo 4

Halo 7

Halo 9

Halo 11

Halo 14

Halo 17

Halo 19

Halo 20

Halo 21

Halo 22

Halo 24

Halo 27

Halo 28 (New)

Psychotic Episode

The Next Thing You Know

Me2011

Flora

Mother

Love

Aging Gracefully

Hands Of God

Always

L.O.A.

Not Utterly Cast Down

Gabfest

Deep Pockets

A New Beginning

Traffic Slows

Dividing Line

Body

Entering Beaumont

Baseball Game

Beyond The Grey Cloudy Sky

11:12 Am Tuesday Morning

Halo 29 (New)

Harlot

Pop Star

One Take

Down

Resolve

Dance Instructor

Soft Days

What I Want

All The Rage!

Scenario (-7143)

Once Deceived

Violent Episode

Wonderful Woman

Vigor And Pep

Try Not To Be Interesting

My Brother David

Enjoy

Somewhere New

Homecoming

Vacation

Madison Avenue

Halo 31 (New)

October Air

Novel

Diesel Exhaust

Flight

Military

Close

Party Party

Sin Pretend

Group Home Manager

Smile

Shekinah

Is’nt That Something!

Hero

Rag

Really A Pity

Precious Gift

Positive Sustained Effort

True Love Is

Religious Persecution

Cia Agent

Either Way

Halo 34 (New)

Restaurant

Moth Eaten

Task Oriented

The Moment

Struggle 14

Peace Beyond All Understanding

Young

Decimate

Introductions

Cut Through

Not What I Thought

It Starts Small

A Real Live Woman

Off Avalon

Shelter Me

Purpose

1611

Free

Mdmc

She Has A Life

Wannabe Horticulturist

Halo 37 (New)

Peaceful Settings

Saturday Night In Long Beach

Parking Enforcement

Looking Towards Hollywood

Candyce

Dancing On The Riverside

Sport

Ora

Halo 40 (I, Eternal… .)

I Eternal

Trust In Jesus

Gang Fight

She’s Pregnant

When

Merciful God

Rtu

Exposed

False Prophet (Part Ii)

Fluffy The Kat

True Nobility

Anti-Personnel Mine

Ache

Where I Live

Realization

Climbing

Not Me

Fullerton, California

God Does Not Need Me

True Violence

At War

Halo 41 (I, Eternal… .)

Moment

Letter To Master Sergeant Caraballo

David

Life On The Northside Of The Moon

Essential

Judas Principle

Graze

Deathbed

Babylon

Interview

City Of Angels

Lesson 24

Simply Humbled

Say Good-Bye

Spaces For Rent

Saturday Night

Above It All

I Remember The 80’S

Grey Grey Freeway

14

Halo 42 (I, Eternal… .)

Disaster

Flattened Cars

Distance

Team Photo

Without

Rationalized Away

Inevitability

Integration

7777

Time Existence

Halo 43 (Weblog)

Witness Of The Holy Spirit

On My Death Bed

American Priorities

A.X.O.T.P.

Exhausted

Fantabulous Comedy Showcase

Fixture Sale

Hotel Idaho

Grind Out The Years

Humans

(Darling) Krystal

Laid Plans

My Way

Holy Raider

State 742

Threshold

Salty Ocean Air

I Love (Visiting Anaheim)

Halo 44 (We Live Eternal)

For Lilly 34 Evening

Tearing Up The Road

Death Birds

The Pleasure Of Jeans

Articulation Of Thought

Part Of My Imperfection

Esoterika

Lord Take Not Thy Spirit Away From Me

Looking At The Clouds

We Only Have One Chance To Be Human

Disenchantment

What For

Little Lessons

Choice Time

When The Mountains Rise

Krisella

Cathy

I Want A Lobotomy

The Waitress

Love Tranquillity (Cathy Part Ii)

Halo 47 (We Live Eternal)

Loving A Lighted Stick Of Dynamite

Love Of Children

Insignificance

Principle 7

Tuesday’s Deletion Is Itself

Toxic Waste

Virus Revolution 16.Cc.-B

Poet’s Apprenticeship

The Danger Of Writing Poetry At 70 Mph

Creation

Plight

Car Accident

Pitch Black

Love Connection

Potential For

(Meaning) Does My Fish Have?

Incongruency

A Glimpse Into Hell

Suffering

Winter Tree

Nature’s Work

Halo 49 (We Live Eternal)

Sharpen Your Pencils

Doggy Baseball

Buying Donuts

Marietta Talk

Repentence

Complex Spiritual Situation

Numbers Are Degenerative

Musical Renditions

C-Stands For Cool

What Meaning (Part Ii)

Desire To Kill

California Driving

Kristy

Her… . (Presence In My Life)

A Matter Of Time

To The Reader

Thanks

DEDICATION

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For Krystal; a beautiful child who was abused and swept away by the violence of this world. Her life blessed mine. Who weeps for her?

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. Proverbs 3:5-7

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Hell and destruction are never full;

so the eyes of man are never satisfied.

Proverbs 27:20

FOREWORD

Darnell Sherman: The Gadfly of South Central

Every Friday night for the past five years, I have wandered the streets, asking random pedestrians the ultimate questions of life:

1. Is there any ultimate meaning or purpose to our existence?

2. Is there objective right and wrong? If so, what is the basis of morality?

3. What happens when we die?

From packs of street kids to affluent grandfathers, from Muslim engineers to tattoo-faced gang bangers, my interviewees temporarily suspend the weekend’s sex, drugs, and rock and roll to ponder life’s questions. Now why would these people be so eager to discuss such personal questions with a stranger on the sidewalk on a Friday night? Because our culture denies the expression of such questions; when they are answered, they are not answered well.

Our schools teach us that the universe came from nothing, for nothing, and is heading toward nothing. We are taught that humans as a species have no more ultimate significance than barnacles. We are taught that Hitler, a murdered child, and a gorilla have the same ultimate fate; dust. The postmodernists state there is no afterlife, no justice and nothing more. (Except maybe the virtue of tolerance, we need to teach that, state the postmodernists; they also state all truth; including every moral and religious claim is relative.) Given the resulting despair from this cocktail of naturalist and postmodern philosophy, enter Albert Camus, who says the only real philosophical question is: Why not kill yourself? Have a nice day, kids! So that’s why people are willing to talk to a random stranger on the street; deep down, they know they’ve been lied to; they know suicide is a cop-out, (a tragic and permanent solution to a temporary problem) and they know truth, goodness, and beauty are not merely collocations of atoms. The souls I meet on Friday nights thirst for something more, something eternal; truth itself and living water; which is Jesus Christ and not the fallacious tenets of post modernism. The next question is how an average guy like me ever dared to engage in such a counter-cultural activity on a Friday night in the first place? Two answers: God and Gadfly.

Socrates was the first given the moniker Gadfly. He buzzed around Athens, aggravating Greek commuters with the bone-jarring questions of life. As with our culture, Socrates understood that busyness does not equate to meaningful truth. Soren Kierkegaard was the second: the Danish Gadfly, dropping Christian existentialism on a culture that ignored the profound meaning of his prose. Only a century after his death was his greatness appreciated. Now completing the trifecta is: Darnell Sherman, the Gadfly of South Central, stinging us with his musings, his lyrics, his gritty 21st century Psalms.

It was this latest gadfly who messed me up so badly… in a good way… five years ago, prompting me to hit the streets. For Darnell challenged me to ask who was more inconsistent: the atheist who pretends life has ultimate significance while at the same time claiming we are just products of time, matter, and chance on the way to oblivion; or the Christian (like me) who gives intellectual assent to God’s love and His judgment yet denies both with my apathetic lifestyle towards my God, His Commission, and my fellow man? No amount of movie watching, sports idolatry, or career building could drown out this stinging conviction. So it was a poet, not a theologian, who most challenged me to live a consistent Christian life.

Now I love analytical philosophy and systematic theology as much as the next guy, but an exclusive diet of theologians and philosophers can reduce our concept of God to neat, quantifiable sets of propositions. But God is neither neat, nor quantifiable. An encounter with the Living God is not like reading the periodic table. It’s like surviving an angry tide. It makes you feel small, yet with a sense of awe, wonder, love and terrible fear. It is through poetry that God revealed himself in the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. This poetry, along with other genres of Scripture; the gospels, law, epistles, apocalyptic literature, prophesy and so on, augments a fuller understanding of the counsel of God. For too long, contemporary orthodox Christians had given up the genre of existential poetry. Thankfully, an uncompromising disciple has taken it back… and he is taking no prisoners.

Mr. Michael Chamberlain

MALLEABLE

God is eternal. God is forever and forever. Because he is eternal we are eternal. We are forever and ever. We are temporary mortal. We are eternal bliss, pleasure and love or eternal pain, suffering and longing. We are free will. We are choice. We are because God created us. God created us to live forever, to die physically, to experience pleasure and pain and to have free will and choice. Accept Jesus Christ as your Personal Lord and Savior. Vanity of vanities; do not live your life in vain.

One may accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior by praying the following prayer:

"Heavenly Father I come before you in the name of Jesus. I’m asking you to forgive me of my sins, and to cleanse me in the blood of Jesus Christ, which was shed for the remission of my sins; I accept Jesus Christ now and forever as my Personal Lord and Savior. Father, I thank you for saving me, and sending your only begotten son; Jesus, to die for my sins. Amen."

It’s as simple as that. Jesus Christ changed my life. He has allowed me to let go and to let God. Jesus Christ; I know him, because he dwells within me. He also dwells within my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. This connection with Jesus Christ satisfies my need for true intimacy. I still yearn to share experiences with others; however knowing that God himself loves me and knows everything about me is a great comfort. I believe if I knew the experience of every other human upon the earth, in the absence of a relationship with Jesus Christ, I would be sorely unfulfilled, desperate and empty; I would no longer want my existence to continue. Jesus Christ is the most important and vital piece of the human puzzle.

MALLEABLE II

All humans are creations of God, which is the most valuable aspect of human existence as a whole; some way, some how we were all touched by the hand of God when he chose to create us; we should be honored and humbled. Every human ever created was touched by the holy, all powerful and majestic hand of God; that touch upon our lives grants us the honor of knowing that God himself, breathed life into each one of us. God desired to grant us life; he saw fit to create us. Race, nationality, socio-economic status, language and all else which divides humanity are ultimately irrelevant.

Socioeconomic status and race does not exist in heaven or hell. For those in heaven or hell today, it