Journal Entry September 9 at 12:12pm

I don't often have such vivid dreams as the one last night. My Uncle John was driving my father and I home and I could see a scary storm on the horizon. Maybe being in Iowa where you can see storms coming from many miles away because it is so flat here? Oh well, praise God that He has promised to see us through to the other side (Mark 4:35). I won't dwell on it, I just think it's interesting.

Of This God on September 11 at 6:49pm

He is the Alpha and the Omega, He is the Living Water, He is the Bread of Life, He is the Mighty Counselor, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace... If I had ten thousand tongues, I still could not utter enough praise to do justice to the Lord, God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. He is preeminent, pre-existant, totally self sufficient, and worthy of my complete adoration. He is as holy as He is benevolent; beautifully perfect in all His ways. He created the heavens and the earth by His great power and outstretched arm and there is nothing too hard for Him. Not unlike Abraham, I am fully persuaded that, what he has promised, he is able also to perform from everlasting to everlasting. I just want to praise Him. Hallelujah! He is just that good to me, praise God! Maybe other people are able to create their own oxygen and they don't need God. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God (Psalm 20:7)... I have encountered this great God, Jehovah. And, He has done great things for me. He has made a way for me when there was no way and I couldn't even have told you which way was up. He took me out of a life of misery and shame and set my foot upon a ROCK. Now I glory in nothing except the fact that in Him I live and move and have my being. You cannot make me doubt Him - I have encountered Him - I have tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious (1 Peter 2:2, 3). Oh magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together! I will not apologize for this joyous outburst. My name is Brian L Hunter and I approve this message!

Journal Entry September 22 at 11:25pm

John 4 - When I reach for my beloved, I am digging deeper and loving even as I am loved by Him. Oh, the living water and how my soul thirsts for Him. I just can't tell it all, but I know I had to tell somebody about my Lord and how His mercy endureth forever! I am going to praise Him for an eternity, so I may as well start now. Hallelujah! ... Something is flowing out of me. Hallelujah! I've got a river of life... Hallelujah! Bless His holy name. I'm trying to let it go and shut my mouth, praise God. Mmm mmm good! That's what Jesus is to me. I'll take this over antidepressants any day. Hallelujah!

“Because I Could Not Stop For Death” by Emily Dickinson

I have just a few thoughts on “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” by Emily Dickinson. It is lighthearted yet not irreverent. It leaves me with the impression that death is not some far off evil in the night, but rather a gentle personality who leads us from one state to another. Now, as Christians we know that death, though our enemy, has been conquered by Christ’s perfect sacrifice. Nonetheless, I appreciate this poem for depicting a woman’s calm acceptance of death. She even appreciates the personification of death just as she might embrace an eligible bachelor she could marry and be content with. Each quatrain lightly skips along like a child on the way to school on a brisk autumn morning, unencumbered and sure of the destination. “Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me;” – Who would choose to die? And yet, since we must all die, why not envision death as a friend who will not let us forget our inevitable appointment. I love the fact that this poem can evoke thoughts of death and mortality that are neither depressing nor morose. “The carriage held but just ourselves And Immortality.” This causes me to see death as encapsulated by something larger than itself which makes death not as scary and makes me somehow equal to it since both death and I are both held in a carriage with Immortality. The entirety of this poem leaves me with a sense that death is something we must be comfortable with since it is a natural part of nature’s course in this sin sick world we live in. I am absolutely convinced that this was the author’s intent.

Two Brokers of Freedom in Poetry

I would not say that American literature has progressed to show a better way of life, but rather a steady decline in morality and ethics in American society. Why are irreverent comedies and reality shows now all the rave on television? They begin as screenplays and scripts, albeit not on par with Samuel Beckett. Is there any correlation between the women’s rights movement and the increase in pornography as well as other violence against women in our society? I enjoy the poetry of Dickinson and Whitman. I also see artistic merit in the works of French poet Arthur Rimbaud, novelist Arthur Miller, and painter Georgia O’Keeffe. In fact, I struggle now in my personal life with a penchant for vampire movies even though https://goo.gl/9vbfn6 I am spiritually opposed to the very premise of such lore. I believe that all art merely shapes the natural experience, the very real nature experienced by the artist, into something that naturally resonates with those who enjoy that work of art. I keep in mind that we live in a fallen sinful world and that our flesh naturally enjoys the pleasures of sin, self-destructive as they may be. We have to be careful about what we allow into the ear-gate and the eye gate. As artists, being Christians, we have the added responsibility to be careful what we allow to come out of us, whether it be verbally, literarily, musically, or through visual arts. Whitman was instrumental in freeing the heart of the human animal in the art of poetry. No more need expression be limited to the confines of rhyme or meter. With her more richly arcane poetry, Dickinson demonstrated that no matter how dark or unsatisfying the reality we experience, we should dare to express it as honestly as we are able. Whitman and Dickinson both seem to make poetry more approachable, perhaps even a gift of which we are all more capable.