The Battle Surrendered--Part 1 of 5

I'm excited to introduce to you our first part in a series of five stories written by Storyteller SilverLoom! We were graciously given permission to use it. It's a beautiful story, and I just KNOW you'll love it like both Tiffany and I have. But...we can't post it all today. It will have to come in segments. Come back tomorrow for part two!

Part One

By Storyteller SilverLoom

They came at night. There was no time to prepare. I had no idea they were coming for me… until it was too late.

I woke up just in time to see them reaching for me. They looked like shadowy silhouettes of humans. They had no faces, no features to distinguish one from another. Their fingers were like black icicles circling around my arms, neck, and head.

Screaming, I pulled back, trying to roll over and get away. The shadow creatures didn’t let go.

A dim light suddenly shone. But instead of clarifying, this light made everything blurry. It illuminated the shadow creatures, but they didn’t disappear like shadows; instead, they seemed to grow more solid. Their skin turned white, soft, and pleasantly warm. I could see their eyes; dark, but gentle. The light seemed to come from someplace behind the creatures.

A strange feeling invaded my body and mind, like the one you get when you have a fever and take a sedative cold medicine. Under the unnatural disorientation, I started to wonder why I was fighting. I thought that I wasn’t being hurt, so why bother struggling? It was too much work to try to get away.

The creatures made me stand beside my bed. I didn’t resist. One of the creatures twittered in my ear, its voice soothing, “Follow meee….”

I didn’t ask where it wanted me to follow it to. I would see when I got there. It would take too much effort to talk.

I remember taking the first step to follow the creature. Something in me warned that what I was doing was stupid and wrong, but I buried the feeling and stepped forward. The next thing I knew, I was blinking as if I had just woken up. I was no longer in my bedroom.

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The eerie light was gone. The shadow creatures were gone. I was completely alone in a dark, damp prison. The only light in the place filtered in from a crack in the wall high above me. My ankles and wrists were chained to the stone floor of the dungeon. I had a vague memory of the creatures telling me to chain myself up.

“Hello?” I called. No answer came. The only sound was the rhythmic dripping of water from a corner of my prison. “Hey! Let me go! Get me out of here!” I yelled. Was it my imagination, or did I hear malicious laughter coming from the darker parts of the dungeon?

My heart pounded with fear. I had never thought something like this could happen to me. This stuff only happened to people in stories. It wasn’t supposed to happen in real life.

A scream welled up inside of me and I let it go. The worst part of it was that I knew I had put myself in this place. I hadn’t fought hard enough.

I curled up on the cold stone floor and sobbed. Then I called for the only One who could hear me. “God, please… please help me! I don’t know where I am! I shouldn’t have given in. Please! Help me!”

As my tears fell, the light from the crack in the wall suddenly disappeared. I stopped mid-sob and froze. I even held my breath.

A voice reverberated off the solid walls of my prison. “Hello, down there!”

I looked up at the crack. The face of a man stared back at me, his head almost completely covering the small crack. He had the widest smile I had ever seen. “Not the most comfortable place to live, I’d say.”

I wiped my teary eyes with my pajama sleeve. “Can… can you get me out?” I asked.

His smile grew even larger. “That’s what I came here to do.”

Come back tomorrow for installment number two!

Wisdom Wednesday

explanation: a miscellaneous collection of verses, with a quote at the end.

Philippians 2:13-16,  “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.”

Psalms 34:8,  “O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.”

1 Corinthians 13:12,  “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”

1 Thessalonians 2:10-13,  “Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe: As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”

Have a blessed Wednesday (or Thursday, depending on where you live)!

~Esther~

*Thanks to www.flowerspictures.org for the "Apple of Peru" picture behind the quote!*

Recipes Wanted

Hello, all you dear readers!

I'm slowly working on putting together the next JOJ magazine (fourth edition), and thought for this issue we'd like some recipes!

And, of course, your help is needed...do you have any fairly simple and easy recipes to share with us today? If you prefer, you can comment, or feel free to contact us. And please, either way you send it to us, include a little "about me" at the end. It doesn't have to be fancy, but it's nice to know the people behind the recipes--not just the recipes themselves! It helps build sisterhood.

Here's a recipe for you to try today:

Oh, yum, yum! I'll have to make those again!

Looking forward to your submissions!

For now, 

Your loving sister,

Esther

Poems

I walked a mile with Pleasure;
She chatted all the way;
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow,
And ne’er a word said she
But, oh! The things I learned from her,
When sorrow walked with me.

-Robert Browning Hamilton

Because I Love You

This story was written by both Tiffany and Esther, at Esther's birthday sleepover. Yes--that's what writers do sometimes! Write when they come together for a birthday celebration! Enjoy. (And I hope you'll get something out of it!)

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Mae rose from the chair to take a closer look. Something was slowly creeping across the lawn! The long furry body slowly sneaked toward the porch. What? She though, it can't be! She leaned tiptoe over the verandah, the bushy tail had just slipped behind a small shrub. Mae leaned harder. Was it a…? She squinted, all of a sudden the top three verandah boards gave way and Mae fell the six feet drop and landed on her back, the lower half of her body on the concrete, the rest on the grass bank.

She cried out in shock. Her legs wouldn't obey her command! “MUM!” She screamed, staring at her lifeless legs.

Suddenly, a head popped up from behind the bank, exposing a red head, green mischievous eyes, and a freckled nose.

“JEREMY!” the yell came almost to a scream. It ended in a moan of fear. She almost sobbed, but her voice came in a whisper. “Get Mum. NOW.”

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Mae was quickly but gently wheeled into the emergency room. People in blue robes lifted her onto a table. A large black machine was hoisted down and moved over her legs. One of the people, a nurse, reached over and squeezed her hand. “You're gonna be fine, honey. We just need to X-ray your legs to see what's wrong.” Mae lay very still, thinking how this whole day had completely turned around. She was disturbed from her reverie by an agonized scream coming from the X-ray viewing room. Some pale faced nurses walked through and took her off the table.

Just as they were wheeling her out she saw her Mum, tears streaming down her face. She was talking with the Doctor in the door to the viewing room. “WHAT!” She screamed, “You mean my precious daughter will never walk again!”

“The fall damaged her lower back, causing paralysis. I am very sorry, Ma'am, but yes. She will never again walk.” While her Mum wailed, Mae stared at the ceiling in shock. She would never again walk!?

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Gently, she was placed on her bed by strong arms. Her father crossed the room, opened the closet, and extracted two more pillows. He carefully placed them behind her and exited the room.

A once cheery—now grim—face appeared in the doorway, and she watched as the little boy quietly crept to the chair by the bed. “Are you hurt bad?” The boy asked, gazing at the lifeless legs resting on a cushion. She wanted to scream, to tell him to run away, but she couldn't. It wouldn't be kind—or fair. He didn't know what was going to happen when he had done it!

Bitterly, she replied, “Yeah. I won't ever be able to walk again.”

A pained expression flitted across his small dirt-streaked face. “I was just joking!”

“Oh, yeah?” She wanted to say more, to say that it was a dirty joke, but she refrained. Mum wouldn't like her to talk like that to her brother. She would just keep quiet.

“Yeah.” the boy glanced again at her legs, then up to her face. “Tommy gave me that wolf skin. He said that his uncle got it on his last hunting trip! Isn't it swell?”

“Well,” Mae raised her voice but caught herself just in time. “I think you'd better go.”

A truly mournful face looked up at her. “Are you mad?”

“JUST GO!” she shouted. A tearful boy ran out.

Huh, some joke! She muttered to herself. It cost me my legs. Now I'll be stuck in a chair all my life!

Over the next few days Mae had nothing to do except be sorry for herself and blame Jeremy. You might have said she had the right—she would never be able to do the same things again. But thinking these things was not making Mae's home a nice one. She was constantly talking to herself, and she would not let anyone in her room. Darkness had crept into her room, visitors learned to keep well away. Mae's life and beauty—had turned into a stinking pit of blackness, bitterness and selfpity. Her family crept lightly round her.

One night, Mae was seriously thinking of somehow taking her life. She fell into a dream. In the dream, the walls around her bed were crumpled by thick black searching fingers. An overwhelming stench filled the room. The smell of something long dead or dying. Mae felt exposed. She heard moanings, groanings, shrieks and laughs. She was glad her bed was still there and she pulled the covers up to her ears, but the sounds did not stop. She could now “feel” the air—a deep violent stirring invoking utter terror in her heart. The stench became overwhelming. She felt the air being robbed from her, and she began gasping for breath. There seemed to be many things around her, gathering on her bed. She could feel their hairy, slimy touches as if there was no covers.

Suddenly, there was two claws that dug deep into the flesh around her shoulders. Two wide sickly yellow, green flecked eyes stared into her own, and she sensed they were smiling and she realized those eyes belonged to the claws that were drawing yet deeper into her skin. Yes those eyes were smiling—enjoying the pain they were inflicting. About now she became aware of the worst noise in her life, the sound of herself screaming. Something she would never forget. The pain became indescribable, those claws felt as though they'd reached in and grabbed her heart, and was squeezing the life out of her. “HELP!!!”

She screamed hoping like never before, the hope of someone desperate. She could feel herself crumpling like paper.

“Put your hand up!” a soft voice whispered. Hot, thinking dimly, she put her hand up. The relief was immediate. She felt like she was being pulled through lots of layers of dirt really fast at a speed much faster than an aeroplane. She looked up and saw the best face she could ever imagine, coming toward her, FAST. All of a sudden, she was at His feet.

“MAE” He said.

All of a sudden, Mae felt very dirty. Very ashamed. She suddenly realized what she had been doing to people during her “sickness”. She tried to get away from this man who was giving her those feelings.

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“Don't trust your feelings, my dear, for the feelings come and feelings go. Mae, you have something to tell me.” He added.

She poured out everything to Him and lay herself at His feet. “Sir,” she said, “I know not why you take such interest in me. Why, you took me from that terrible place below, when punishment was what I really deserved.”

“Because,” He said, brushing away a tear, “Because,” He said as he tossed her up and spun her around, “Because, I love you!” With that, the dream faded, but the love she had come to see continued and she jumped out of bed and ran into her Mum & Dad's room and jumped on their bed saying, “Mummy, Daddy, I met the greatest person…”

Her parents looked at each other in the eye, both with tears filling their eyes.

“Darling,” her Mummy cried, “You're walking!”

THE END

Blessings,

-Tiffany and Esther-

Welcome!

Hello!!!

Have you just stumbled in somehow?

Or have you just alighted on our windowsill, cocking your head like a bird does, to see what the J.O.J. blog looks like?

Well, whether you are an exhausted traveller or a curious bird, we warmly welcome you both!

Please take a little time to sit down and rest. To read through the post's, to scroll through the articles and hunt through the archives! We love to get comments, so please don't be afraid to recommend something, just please do it in a caring manner.

While you read, we hope you will become aware of the presence of One who started this all.
We hope that if some how you know Him not, that He who breathed life into this, will somehow--for His ways are mysterious--breathe life into you, for there is nothing quite so wonderful as Him.
And if you don't know who 'He' is... Well you're about to find out!

And no we did not forget you, you who already "know" Him -know, you see, isn't quite the right word, for who can know Him? Anyway, we hope you will be encouraged, blessed, by this.

And if you should have anything you would like to say please email us at jewelsofjesus@gmail.com.

Love and Blessings,

- Esther and Tiffany