New Bulla Found!!!

I know what you are asking, "what is a bulla?" Long long ago in a land called the Near East kings would impress parchment with a seal showing that it was from the king. These seals would often have the full name of the king, or scribe that was making the proclamtion. We really don't find these seals, however, they were imprinted in clay. When the seal was broken the clay would fall to the ground and be forgotten, it was basically garbage, we call that garbage, "Bulla."

This Bulla (not to be confused with a wooly bulla) has the name "Yehukal son of Shelemyahu son of Shobai (or: Shobi)." A name very similar to this appears in Jeremiah 37:3 Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah. Take into account yahu is a form of the sacred name Yahweh. Elijah's name in Hebrew actually sounds like Eliyahu, so shelemyahu to shelamiah is not a far switch. Iah, or Jah, is a common alteration for western language. Like Jeremiah which is in hebrew more like Yirahyahu.

Well, we can't be 100 percent right now that this is the same person, another blogger has pointed out a possible problem with the letter that they have made into the sh sound. check out here for a discussion of the bulla with the hebrew text apearing on it and here for a photo and the sin/shin question, for all those linguaphiles.

An old roomate friend of mine has been in town so we threw a party. I enjoy paries, even more when I throw them. Mainly because I can stand at the grill and hide then clean up in the kitchen when I am tired of being around people. It is also really fun to see how many people I can get into my apartment. Of course it is mainly old Harding people, not everyone but a lot, so when we get together there is no alcohol or loud music, just a lot of burgers, soda, and we play a good bit of mofia. Mofia is an intersting game, especially if you like watching people try to be deceptive, A game that is based off of lying somewhat like a game I used to play initialed BS.

I have found out I like to grill out, I think I am going to get a grill, since the one here belongs to someone else, I am going to grill out in the middle of winter. Especially if it is the day in the memphis winter that it snows. Because unlike growing up in the northern panhandle of West Virginia which would get well over a foot over night. Now I know that the people from the Dakota's and Wisconson and such think "ooh a foot, we get like 10 feet" but it is enough for me to not like snow anymore.

anyway God Bless

Last night I went to Bible study, and we dealt with 1 Peter 3. I was unhappy the leader chose not to deal to heavily with the reference to the spirits in prison, I always like those fun refrents to odd books not in our cannon.

All in all the major point we chose to discuss was submission. At the end of chapter two slaves submit to masters and at three wives submit to husbands. I also understand a mutual submission when i look at places like Ephesians 5, in submitting to one another. There is a good bit in the New Testament about submission, to rulers, to God also Jesus in the garden during the Night with Ebon Pinion.

Submission is very countercultural. I used to work with children who were fed a steady diet of rap music and bling bling. I have seen more gold in the teeth of people who can't afford it than you imagine. Never scared!!! the words of a rap song. Outside of the club and you call me a punk, so I go to the loaded tech nine and open the trunk. Never scared!!!!

The story is simple, if you cross me you die. A long cry from the New Testament Submission.
Maybe I over simplify when I go to the words of Gandolf in the fellowship. "Many live who deserve to die. Some die who deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo?

I work myself through Graduate school by working in the maintenance department at HUGSR. I do enjoy the work. For the first two hours I drove the riding mower around and cut some grass, which in itself is a nice job. The second half of the morning involved work with the weedeater, which in Australia is referred to as a whipper snipper. I don't care much for the work during the summer heat but as it begins to cool off I will enjoy it more. Last summer was very nice. When I have papers due and am running late on things and am having ministry issues, I believe that the day after day work with a weed eater is relaxing. Or the day to day work with a paintbrush, you should look at my chapel renovation blog. I personally think I have one of the best jobs on campus. Anyway these are my daily musings.

God Bless

Have you ever noticed Macgyver never uses a gun. It goes back to when he was a kid and somehow accidently he killed a friend of his. He does all kinds of cool stuff and doesn't even carry a piece. I don't have a problem with people owning guns, I am from West Virginia, it is odd I don't hunt but i have kin who do. They like guns and NASCAR. Not incredibly strong in my family but my brother picked up the hunting thing in his adulthood. I am not opposed to hunting to killing in season, the father of one of my closest friends is a conservation officer in West Virginia. I understand the desire of venison or wild turkey (the meat not the drink) jerkey. I met some Choctaw who told me that the original hunting they did was in respect for the animals. They would say that the animals, understanding their place in teh circle of life, would come to the Choctaw people.

Well the world is differnet people have guns it is perscribed in the constitution, the right to bear arms. I have a friend who carries, I have another who has pulled the trigger finding out the gun wasn't loaded, and once years ago I stood a foot away from a Crypt who at one year younger than me had taken life on the streats.

Is there nothing that can be done? How is it that so many handguns appear on the streats? I know a lot of people who think of the abilty to take life as the ultimate power. Anything to save face. When I am wrong the hardest thing to do is admit it. My pride doesn't want me to admit it. How much harder then when I'm not wrong and my name is being slandered. My personal desire is to make people sorry they messed with me. I am wired the same way as everyone else. I forget that Vengence belongs to the Lord, and want to choose myself to make things even. What if more people accepted that Vengence belongs to the Lord.

Lately I have been trying to get a little healthier. I was doing better about a month ago when I was running three times a week and in better control of my diet. However I am not doing horrible. I am also finding that I am a fan of natural stuff. During the winter I eat a lot of whole grain oatmeal, while it is cold I tend to eat honey bunches of oats. I tend to have acid reflux issues and my grandmother who is also into the holistic stuff recomended, for years, lime water. Basically is it a liquified calcium that is heavily alkaline. Since my blood tends to be very acidic I think this is a good thing. My grandmother is a wonderful woman, not only does she send me the lime water but ph paper to test my saliva :) thanks grandma

I am also a believer in Kefir. You may be asking, what is kefir. Kefir is a form of fermented milk high in acidofolous. What is acidofolous, well I am probably spelling it wrong but hey you can check that if you want. Basically it is a form of bacteria that lives in the colon to aid in digestion. Yogert has it too. Anyway kefir is intersting, it is an acquired taste. I mix it with various juices. However, the juices are not to kind to my indigestion, however, when I am running, paying attention to my eating, and drinking my kefir the indigestion never seems to be a problem.

For info on Kefir: check out http://users.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirpage.html
peace out!!!

I pulled my birds out trying to train my wonderful little parrotlets, and lately they have been somewhat frustrating. Parrotlets are small birds, like I have said before sometimes smaller than finches. The male chomped down on my thumb today and it was sore for a while. The male I have noticed doesn't care much to be handled, of course, however, I am not one of the more loving of owners of pets.

I am currently watching the truman show. There is an intersting statement the creature of the "show" in the movie makes, "We accept the reality we are presented with."
How often is that true. Now when it comes down to it I am simply an armchair philospher take a look below at my poetry and you might figure that out. Though it reminds me of the allagory of the cave. People living chained up staring at the wall of a cave, a fire behind them and things interacting between causing shadows to be cast on the wall. One guy breaks free and finds the biggest frustration is getting the rest of the people to want to leave their chains.

Chains of bondage, the way I see it theologically we are bonded to one thing or another. We are either bonded to God or to sin. I pull this idea from Paul. the mid 20th century brought this idea into addiction with the beginning of the use of the 12 steps of AA. In some way the addict is in bondage, either to Alcohol or his higher power. The whole thing is based off of surrender.

regardless I can always wax an elephant often enough to even get him through the door. Freedom in Christ is an intersting concept. Freedom from sin is bondage itself. There is an evengelical Christian song called "pierce my ear," in the end of the song the singer chooses to have his ear pierced in line with the Hebrew law that lets a slave choose to stay with his master after the year of his release.
Psalm 84 talks about the writers desire to be a doorman in the house of God than a good life in the homes of the wicked.

The desire for God must be greater than the desire for anything else.

Anyway this post is not pointless but very disjointed.

God Bless

Well,
I want to add a picture to my profile but to do that I have to put one in my post. That is crazy to me, if I can load a pic to the post and take their space why can't I just load one onto my profile. No one ever said it had to make sense.

So here it is, my mug, I am letting you choose what you think of it, I'm not to keen on my hair and my mustache has looked better, but I learned from Napolean Dynamite that it is important to be able to grow a mustache. It might even propel me into office. I always as a note of pride view my facial hair. Now the big question is, what do you think of that smile. taking the picture was probably weird looking because I was standing by the mirror and I just cropped out the camera in photoshop. I didn't crop it out because I thought it would be good just to have the mug, but because my digital camera model's first buyer was Enoch (the biblical character). And if I leave the camera people will add comments, assuming they read this page, that say things like, "get a new camera old camera guy" and I just can't handle that dressing down. So here it is my picture, then everyone can see who I am.

Peace and Hairgrease

It's late, I just got back from Searcy to watch the HSBS Graduation. My church supports a fellow in that program so in representation I went with our minister, I suppose minister works for a title. It was great to see Harding again. I noticed they were renovating my old dorm, so I decided to walk through it, look at one of the rooms I used to stay in. I was telling my friend about some of the weird traditions we had at Harding. It was really good, it ended with a trip to midnight oil where we ran into some guys we knew. It is funny to hang with the minister/mentor I work with. He is a total hippy with the long hair and everything, we even drove over in a van. Who would have guessed, I found a hippy for a mentor.

It is important to have mentoring in ministry. It scares me that some 22 year olds try to leave college and get jobs with no guidance. Since I have been in graduate school the best learning I have had has been from one mentor or another, whether at the urban church I worked at or the House church I currently reside with. Somewhere along the line Christians in our movement quit getting mentors. It seems like no matter what is going on in life someone has been through something like it before, wouldn't it be nice to find someone who understood and can work through it. Shoot, AA is based on a similar principle. I suppose mentoring got a bad name some years ago when a movement in our family of Christianity broke free in Florida through a campus ministry and moved to Boston. At that point, discipling became a bad word for us main liners, as called by the international C of C'ers.

My final words, find a mentor, some Christian older than you, who is in a place you might someday want to be in.

God Bless

These are my burds, starting from the left, Sarah, and Abraham. They are parrotlets. Supposed to be very nice social birds. Not always the best of birds though. They are tiny little birds, smaller than finches. It is always nice to have something to take care of.

I am going to Searcy this afternoon to watch a friend graduate from the HSBS program. I met the guy at mychurch in memphis. You should check out the webpage, we are a collection of house churches in the greater memphis area. It is weird, I started in memphis working in the inner city, and I see there are people who live in the greater area with as many issues. The issues are generally the same.

I currently have a year left in my program at HUGSR, I will graduate with a Masters of Divinity. After school I am thinking of going into Hospital Chaplency. The direction God has been leading me is intersting, wherever I minister and whatever I do, I want to give people hope.

In my life and the lives of the people I have worked with and befriended in Memphis, I see this great lack of hope. The world we live in is not designed to give people hope. Read my poetry :). I hope I can help people find hope

Well,

I haven't posted on this site in years, so if you want to read some of my bad poetry go ahead. I will change it for no man or woman. Not necissarily proud of it all but i figure if I am going to call the thing the journey I might as well let you see it. I remember that poem, it was a very lonely time. It is always neet to see how far I have come and how far I still need to go. To know me you have to be able to understand grace.

Anyway, I helped a wonderful friend move today. It was very sad, I didn't know what to do with that. I was so sad when I left, but that is Okay, being sad is important. I used to thrive in my saddness, now that I let my friends see this blog, I suppose I have to accept that I used to choose to live my life in the dark pits of despare because I belived it made people think I was deep or smart or something.

anyway God Bless

Netherworld: The great reconciliation

I dreamt one morning that the darkness came…
Of the things of true night and never ending rain…

I dreamt one night of the eternal morn
Of the sunshine of God forgetting my scorn…

The damn pain
As I lose my control
The damn hurt
As I give in to my burn

Elated decision
Forgotten once more
To flog the prisoner
The candy assed whore.

Where does my help come from
My help comes from my death
Where’s God when I pay the pest
Where’s the face that shines on me
Bound by my sin never set free…

Where’s God when I want to die
Watching waiting and listening to me cry
Listening hearing when my muscles jerk
Hearing the cry when I lose my perk…

Where does my help come from?
My help comes from my death
Where’s God when I pay the pest
Here’s the face that shines on me
Ever more setting me free…

Elated decision
Forgotten no more
No peaceful sleep
Purifying the whore

The great joy
When I win the race
The great love
When I stand again to face

I dreamt one morning that the darkness came…
Of the things of true night and never ending rain…

I dreamt one night of the eternal morn
Of the sunshine of God forgetting my scorn…


just a note, I concieved a lot of this from CS Lewis' Great divource

To find things Lost

Forgotten, impoverished, and dusty
My soul it longs to hear
Forever, eternal, never
My heart is begs in fear

Elation, joy, and bright
Lost for years to come
Despair, pain, and death
Lost in history now numb

Happy…
There’s happy
Sad…
There’s sad

Living…
I suppose
Dead…
Never so bad

My search for the center begins at the edge
My God to dismember my heart with a sledge
Elation to enter, Despair as well
Love in the embers, and fires-- far from hell.

For my Uncle

Encamped at night amidst the hills
The shepherds tend their flocks
The spring air calls the kings to war
And darkness creeps the walk

The man in darkness now in light
Amidst the preachers soul
He smiled so big when Peter called
And made the darkness go

Toward my face he smiled at me
My older counterpart
He held my hand amid the darkness
And the ship of light embarked

On the way to Valinor
His hands raised in glory
The ship it sailed to ever more
Thought not the end of story

The ship it landed at dock
To the cottage of lost play
Where darkness never berates the sun
And the tattered soul not turned away.

I wrote a letter thursday to my uncle, I never sent it, Friday he went into a coma and today (Satuday as of 10:00 he is dead) here is that letter...
Dear Uncle,

It has been a long time since I have really sat down to write you, I was thinking about that today before I went to chapel and realized I had to remedy that situation. I can figure why it has been so long since I have written you and in the next few paragraphs I would like to expound on that and also apologize.

Hearing of your illness struck me to the heart. I have been thinking today of our relationship, you were the first one to discuss with me the hypothesis in the order of the writing of the gospels. I know that sounds trite but it helps me understand our relationship better. I have always looked up to you as a preacher and even as a scholar. You have a deep and personal knowledge of scripture that can be seen in the way you live your life, but even more so in the way you deal with your illness.

From what I have seen you savor life as a gift from God and with strength you take what comes to you. I have always looked up to you for that trait. I realized while talking to grandmother today for the first time how important you are to me, and how much support you have always given me. When I went to graduate school you applauded me and when I went into ministry you gave me monetary support. For the first time today I have accepted that you aren’t well. In words I have always prayed for you, but this morning my soul cried out to God for you. Today was the first time I asked someone else to pray for you, and while I was doing it I realized why it had taken me so long. I didn’t want to accept that someday you won’t be here. I love you Uncle, you and grandma have been the biggest influences in my life in ministry, but you alone I have identified with the most. As I told your situation in chapel today I began to cry. All the sudden my past few months rushed back into my head. I apologize for my neglect to thank you more often, and also for my neglect to pray for you. I was scared, because once I started praying for you I knew that I had to really believe what is happening.

Thank you for all the support you have given me. I love you Uncle.

God Bless you

Justin M McCreary

I never really fiddled with prose much but I figure why not:

Gaydon looked at her, his eyes never blinking and his mouth never drier. He worked the courage up and up again but the words never left his mouth. As Cheryl looked at him with eyes that declared confusion so deep that no maxim could explain her the truth. It was all Gaydon could do to spit out the phrase, “What if anything is your hearts desire?”
Coming from Gaydon this was not an odd statement. He was often pictured as a thinker and his conversation on more than one occasion had caused a stir as these friends would sit around their lunch table. With a laugh Cheryl simply replied, “true love.” Gaydon had to fight to keep his expression from changing to drastically, he had to keep the air that he was above all answers and that he understood everything. At no cost could he lose his image, the image of a wiseman. If only Gaydon knew, he was the only one who saw his self this way. With a forced chuckle, to hide his nervousness, Gaydon remained without word. Then Cheryl smiled at him, quoting Hanible Lector in the Silence of the Lambs Quid pro quo, what of you?
There were a thousand things Gaydon wanted to reply with, one thousand bold statements that would declare his love, one thousand statements that would make her melt into his arms. But what if she felt different, what if she laughed? Gaydon in his had had formulated a statement that could say just enough to get her to inquire deeper but still hid his truest feelings. “Salvation from guilt.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Cheryl asked with a smirk, “sounds more like a cop-out to me.” Rushing into Gaydon like balefire came a flood of responses, but nothing to really explain what he meant. Gaydon had over intellectualized his self. Because of that there was no reply he could make that would answer her question without saying too much.
“Just that,” Gaydon hesitated, “It is hard to say everything I want to say when…” and he trailed off. Cheryl perked up but Gaydon faded away and walked back to his dorm finishing the phrase in his head. “It is hard to say everything I want to say when I stare into eyes so innocent when my soul is so dirty.”

Muggy Thursday

The heat of the ground burns off in fog
The water so hot burns in the bog

The true night descends upon my dark face
Of laughter I hide I hide in my place

The candle in heart flickers so bright
The darkness around depressing the light

The saddle I wear it causes me pain
The rider I bare he inflicts me with shame

The smile he wears as he whips my broke back
It descends on me like a wolf from a pack

The heat it swelters surrounding my members
The rain makes the fog rise from the embers

The ground is so hot the day is so muggy
The people in darkness the light is so ugly

The calendar stares and laughs with such glee
It laughs it laughs it laughs only at me

For the end isn’t here nor is it marked
The day when the far off dawn will embark

And the rain it slows and the heat deprived
For only a moment until its demise

Natures Race

The bird she flies about the storm
The nest it calls her home
Through the sea of wind and rain
She flies so tattered n torn

The ghosts of death torment her wings
The powers that be, all tremble
For within her beak is breakfast crying
The meal is there so humble

One tree two tree pass her by
She flies among the dark
Three and four in vain liqueur
Reaching at her sight

And death she reigns when hearts are tossed
Amid the Storms and trials
A head so bold it stares direct
Casting off the irons

And the branch from whence she came
The nest to where she flies
In her sight it cries to her
Her babies are all right

Now she comes to land in clear
To feed her hungry children
The golden eyes they spark so quick
And the cat then feeds her kittens…

A dear friend told me last night she wanted to read a happy poem and I didn't have one at the time so I hope she doesn't mind it a little late. For inspiration I read, Oh the places you go and The things you can think I suppose it is a bit of a childrens poem.

The Birthday Poem


The day starting bright
With sun shiny rays
So you ask mom and dad
“What should I do today?”

Mom says to you
“Go clean your room”
Daddy just smiles and says
“Sweep with the broom”

Though not on you’re “A” list
The clean cleaning of rooms
And not even your “B” list
The sweep sweeping of brooms

You grab up a toy
You make up your bed
You grab up the broom
You sweep out the shed

So you finish your chores
Being happy not sad
That once again you approach
Mom and Dad

You say Mom Mommy
“What for now should I do?”
You say Dad Daddy
“I’m done with the broom too.”

Mom looks at dad,
Daddy to Mommy
They smile and say,
“Why not find Tommy.”

So out the door you head
With a splash
Because you live on a boat
And forgot to the last

You swim to the boat
The one three boats down
And yell out to Tommy
“Come out before I drown”

Tommy comes out
Still in clothes bed
You look at ol’ Tom and say
“You hear what I said?”

Tommy looks at you swimming
He opens his mouth
His Yarning sow loud
His breathe like dead mouse,

So without a word
You head back to your boat
And while on the way
You stop for a float

You don’t quite rush home
You float on the floater
You wave and say
Good day to the boaters

And when you go home
The sun is quite setting
So late in fact
You start some fretting

And you crawl up on your boat
Say hi to Mom mommy
Dad daddy stands there
And also stands Tommy

Happy Birthday they say
Tommy’s breathe not so bad
Did you have a good birthday?
So did you, Young Lad?

God Bless
justin

if there are any animators out there let me know :)

This is short and it probably sucks and I will probably be sorry I posted it, so here this is what my heart is yelling at me


Where are you,
I said goodbye
Where’d you go
I left you there

-heptide