"The Best Teen Bible..."

Okay, first of all I didn't know there was "a teen Bible." And this is the one I read when I was a teen, but still... I needed a piece of art for a link on a page, because the old art disappeared. This (the page I will eventually link below, after a couple of worthy tangents) is one of my VERY oldest pages—it used to be on expage.com in the ancient days. And I was using expage art which stuck around for many years, but not this many years.

So I'm using it now, as a link for people to verify my Bible quotes which seem (after the fact of my having already been making and using Thinking Sticks) to sanctify them (or at least to tell some vague story involving two sticks, okay?), and to talk about sticks baked in a cake. Perhaps some ancient Hebrew Twelfth Night cake, or king's cake.... I don't know.

But while I was poking around in the book worshipping land of the King James Bible fanatics, I found a beautiful quote. They didn't mean to provide it as beauty, but that's how it goes. One man's trash-and-proof-of-heresy is another blog writer's treasure:

"Religion won't let you love yourself. Religion is the accuser of the brethren, that's what the devil is. It's legal systems, religious dogmas that say you're not good enough, you're not God enough," he said. "People who believe in hell create it for themselves and others. People who believe in devils and demons become that in consciousness, and they act it out."

Pearson said he firmly believes, as he told his congregation one recent Sunday, "We may go through hell, but nobody goes to hell."

But his current message does not focus on hell, even the hell that humans sometimes create here on earth.

"My hope is that, that people will learn to love themselves, accept themselves and celebrate themselves. That's pretty dramatic, but I think it'll save the planet."

That's the end of an article on an evangelist with a mega church who changed his mind about hell, and the article discussed why and how that happened, and his congregation went from 5,000 to 300.

To credit the art fairly, it was on this site:

There's a countdown to go with this:

155,000 People Die Everyday. . .
Two every second. . .
According to the Lord Jesus Christ, most people die and go to hell.
Sandra Note:That should have been "every day," but the Bible never says God cares about grammar.
And know ye, People of Internet, that Thinking Sticks have nought to do with hell.

Here is what the King James Bible says that seems clearly* to be about Thinking Sticks:

...I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die. [part of I Kings 17:12]andThe word of the Lord came again unto me, saying...
take thee one stick, and write upon it...; then take another stick, and write upon it; And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand. ... And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes. [some of Ezekiel 37:15-20]

* Okay, "clearly" meaning as clearly as any sermon's explanation is ever a clear explanation. And I did leave some words out, but not important words. And you can read them by going here: sandradodd.com/biblicalsticks

Thinking Sticks look like this, but that's not the good part. There is a long insert with history and suggestions and ideas, and then a crucial list of warnings, including "Do not bake in a cake." See above, if you skipped the Word of God part.

click to embiggen