Coming Soon! God's Universal Tour

Have you ever wished you could go on a cruise ship, or travel to another country and see exotic sights, or even take a voyage to another planet and view the galaxy? There's a far greater trip waiting, and you can sign up for your passage today, if you have not done so already!

The greatest voyage ever, God's Universal Tour is the theme of a new series that seven of us of our Advance Team are banding together to bring to pass here in the Okanogan River Valley of north central Washington State. This unique approach to conveying the reality of future events as understood by the Bible through a participatory advanced tour for those who must decide whether they will make the soon to come actual voyage will be based on the ancient teachings of the Bible, whose prophecies depict events that lie just ahead, and will involve the entire human race.


Upcoming Attractions

Some of the dozen featured scenes and stops on God's Universal Tour include:

*Jesus' Second Coming and the Resurrection of the Righteous Dead

*The Journey Through Space from Earth to the Stones of Fire Galaxy at the Heart of the Universe

*Entry Into the New Jerusalem, the Nerve Center Capital of God's Universal Dominions

*A Tour of the Golden City, Attendance at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, and Summons for Universal Jury Duty

*The Second Journey Through Space from Heaven to Earth in the Biggest Mothership Ever Constructed

*The Bright New Jerusalem's Touch Down on Dark Planet Earth and the Day the Living Dead

*The Spectacle of the Last Battle of Armegedon, With the Great White Throne Judgment, and The Voyage of Ark II Through the Flood of Fire

*The Glorious Finale: We Witness the Creation of the New Heavens and the New Earth


The Purpose for the Tour

While we expect to trace surely and vividly the details of the tour, so that all may make choices that will enable them to participate, those engaged in this process are staggered at the magnitude of the sacred task of accurately describing the bare outlines of the coming grand voyage through time and space adequately. The Bible, the only actually functional Time Machine in existence, with the proven ability to see into the distant future and past, says:

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him."
I Corinthians 2:9


What You Can Do to Help

We ask the prayers of all as our Advanced Team of seven explorers goes on ahead in charting the outlines of God's Universal Tour, the grandest voyage of all time, and preparing the way for others who will be invited to follow. Already we have identified a dozen stops on the tour, and the information we uncover we plan to present in twelves fifteen-minute segments that will combine the Bible bones of ancient prophecies foretelling that which now lies just ahead for Earth' inhabitants. Our group of Bible-anchored imagineers seek to convey the information that may be known of these things in a series of creative presentations through word, song, visual aids, and other interactive teaching methods.


The Grand Opening

At present, the God's Universal Tour project is still in the imagineering stage, and will be under ongoing construction here in the Okanogan River Valley over coming months with the ready assistance of our local Seventh-day Adventist congregations. We have an eye to its completion sometime early next year, after which it will be ready for viewing by the general public at our Grand Opening, and at which time advanced ticket sales for the actual tour for the general public would go online.

While we expect God's Universal Tour to be an engaging and sound exposition of the Bible's true teaching concerning what lies just ahead for Earth's inhabitants, we of the Advance Team recognize that our utmost efforts to truly pierce the glory, the gloom, the flames and the splendor that are a part of the actual space voyage are beyond the limits of mankind's imagination. Because of this, we covet the prayers of one and all as the project proceeds. Periodic reports and press releases on the progress of the project may be expected from time to time, and those interested in viewing the work still under construction will have opportunity to do so as it unfolds in our Omak, Tonasket, and Oroville Seventh-day Adventist Churches in the weeks and months just ahead.


Signing Off For Now, But Keep Your Eyes Open For Future Press Releases!

On behalf of our local Management Team of God's Universal Tour, this is Public Relations Spokesman, Skip Johnson, hoping you'll join us as a part of an adventure so stupendous that it lies beyond the ken of mankind's collective imagination.

Keep looking up!

Omak, WA
4/29/2013

Rich Preachers???

I sometimes wish I were in the position to walk away from money entirely. I'd rather go get my rice bowl and be begging with Ghandi, and maybe free up a few countries from their oppressors along the way, or better yet, hang out with Jesus and His disciples. Unfortunately, I was born 2,000 years too late for that particular gig, and I currently have four mostly disabled people living under my roof, dependent on a single pastor's salary. No complaints, here! There is a warmth when you've got one fire to cook on that isn't there when there's enough wood for everybody to stoke their own off in separate corners.

Fortunately, I have a wife who is our financial manager, which leaves my energies free to devote to ministry pursuits that don't involve $$$ signs. Those who post such things as this do make a point about the problem of a church that matches too nearly the values of its surrounding culture, rather than the gifting of the Spirit, in its man-made, church-style corporate ladders.

Some pastors worship golden calves still. Others are lucky to have a car at all, and currently have the same retirement plan as God provided for Moses and Aaron. I have a pastor friend in Africa who has 21 congregations, whom he often sees every week, by riding to them on his motor cycle. He's home two days a week with his new wife (his former wife died a few years back), and children.

I believe here in America we will have to learn and consciously adopt the ministry techniques of our fellow pastors in third world countries before we will be able to finish God's work here, too. Anybody interested in knowing more of how to actually achieve this, check the Facebook page "African and American Adventist Alliance", which the pastor I mentioned and I have been working to establish.

The basic idea is to link up pastors and districts from Africa with pastors and sister districts in America, and also principles and schools in Africa with pastors and sister schools in America, for the purpose of mutual prayer for each others work, the sharing of ministry ideas, cultural exchange, and such tangible assistance as either group can render to the other, as mediated through the pastor or principle involved.

Request for Prayer and Funding for Adventist Orphanage Project in Kenya

African and American Adventist Alliance

I have great admiration for those engaged in active and aggressive work of evangelism and mercy ministries in locations of the world where funding for the same is minimal. I believe we who minister here in America must learn from those who minister in such countries the lessons of faith, tenacity in doing God's work, organization, training, and economy before we will be able to complete the still-unfinished work here in North America.

I received the following request for funding from one such worker, Kenedy Oramat, a few days ago. Kenedy is engaged in working with a project to support needy children and orphans through an Adventist program for those not of our faith in an area where 42 tribal groups live there in Kenya. He seeks whatever aid people may be able to give him to this end.

I have not met Kenedy Oramat personally, and would suggest any with the ability and interest in giving aid contact him on his Facebook page under his name: Kenedy Oramat. You can find further details and make your own informed decisions through direct contact. The rest of us can pray for work being done under most difficult circumstances by fellow Seventh-day Adventist Christians, both Kenedy's work in Kenya, as well as thousands like him in various places of the world.

I am in contact with a fellow pastor in another country in Africa who has a district of 21 congregations, whom he visited often weekly on a five day motor cycle tour. We are working together on a project we're calling “African and America Adventist Alliance”, which looks to match up pastors/districts and principals/schools in Africa and America in “sister churches” and “sister schools” alliances for the purposes of:

1. Mutual prayer for each other's success in ministry

2. The sharing of stories of success and ministry and challenges in ministry

3. Cultural exchange by members/students and pastors/principals through pictures, letter writing, and the like

4. Rendering of mutual aid in tangible form through the pastors or principles, as such resources may become available

If you're interested in learning more, check out the Facebook page my African associate on this project has put up: African and American Adventist Alliance.

Here is the specific details of the Adventist needy children and orphans project in Kenya that Kenedy Oramat is working with from a message he sent from his mobile phone, I believe. I have not altered the text, which is a bit difficult to read due to language issues and also the limited means available to Kenedy for communication.

Keep looking up.

Pastor Skip Johnson, with “African and American Adventist Alliance”

***

from Kenedy Oramat

Helo,pst Skip J.true im from Africa.and im very hapy to be among of your friends in this continent and hope to visit me in person.my Country Is Kenya.im in a project that sponsering children and madication Foundation From Germany.working as staff writting children letters to sponsors.my Life Goals Is to serve the lord and supporting needy childrens and ophans Childrens In Community Under Our Church.CHALLENGES:im working With People Who are not my fellowship in church.i have the plot and i haved introduce the group to work with childrens and we're Capitol and we need brothers and sisters for blessing donation from adventist.as im working they can not consider sabath and we need children to grow up and meet the true worshing and serving the lord.i Live In Kenya Rift valley Province.we have 42 tribes and im a masaa.we are pastrolism keeping cows,sheep and goats.arround The Maasai Lands We have fertile soil good for growing maise,beans,bananas and all crops.i live near the park and there are many wilds animals

Our Truorist There Is Elephants Giraffs,lions,zebras,cheaters,hynas,antalops,black $ White Rhinos ,hippopotomus and crocodile and soo more. IM aventist from south kenya conferance and a youth leader in our district churches I Thank God for the talent of singing He is the good shapherd my parent got seperated whe is was a 4yrs old and i passed dificulities and love children when they enjoy paretal care with love.may God Bless You And Remember Me In Prayer One Faithfuk Man Can Shake The World Amen!

***

P.S. from Pastor Skip Johnson: Our three church district in Connecticut entered into a relationship with a pastor and his 21 congregations in Africa a few years back, as we were beginning to work with this idea of the “African and American Adventist Alliance” of sister church districts and schools. We learned a great deal from their ministry approaches, their faith, and benefited greatly from the prayers of the 4,300 members in those congregations who held our work here up to the Lord of us all. We were also able to send them two boxes of our “God's Dollar” leaflets, enough for one for each of their church members, as well as full sets for their elders which would allow them to have a short eight night reaping session.

That project has been delayed a bit on the American end of things due to a pastoral move to the opposite side of the country, and my own recent round of cancer treatments (successful, thank God!). Those interested in learning more of this initiative, feel free to contact me directly, or go to the “African and American Adventist Alliance” Facebook page. We believe this is an idea that stands to greatly benefit those engaged in ministry on both of our continents by closer links for mutual benefit.

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST

Terry writes this prayer request for Kerry, her husband:

"Hubby is for open heart surgery tomorrow...PLEASE PRAY that our lives will speak Jesus, not like the world and that we would have opportunity to share HIS truth with whom-so-ever-may..."

Note: One of our Tonasket members, Gordon, called me two days ago, and we had an anointing service with oil, prayer, and an appeal to God to honor His Word given in James 5 a few days ago with Kerry and Terry after their own church elders refused to honor this request on their behalf. Kerry has had heart problems for at least three years now. Three years ago, he was clinically "dead" for 15 minutes, before they applied the paddles, and brought back a heart with an artery blocked down to 30% capacity.

During that time down, Kerry had a vision of himself, and of Jesus Christ in garments shining like the weave and wick of a gas camp lantern. Jesus spoke to him, and Kerry was sent back to earth to complete his life's work. This work has included speaking out of the dreams and visions God has continued to give Kerry and his wife, Terry, which point them to the details of the Old Testament sanctuary tent of the time of Moses, and details in symbolic form the very key truths that Seventh-day Adventists have known from our founding as a people.

Specifically, the dream symbols involve the cleansing power that can only come through an entire acceptance of the Ten Commandment Law of God, and the blood of Jesus, including the seventh day Saturday Sabbath of the Bible, and this in the context of the preaching of the eternal gospel. As I know of the truths to which these visions Kerry has received signify, helping he and his wife understand them and know their significance is not difficult.

During the first year after his initial heart attack, Kerry repeatedly attempted to share what he was experiencing with his congregation, but was told by its leadership that he was being led by a spirit other than that from God. His requests that he be shown his error from the Bible proved to no avail. He and his wife have stepped back from direct involvement in the congregation that a portion of their six children's families attend after being increasingly shunned by the leaders and members alike. They are in an isolated position, both socially, geographically (they moved far up into our local "Valley of Refuge", and have been living off the grid, preparing for the coming crisis that every one of the 42 congregations I have visited so far in our district area affirms is imminent), and spiritually.

Two of their own congregations leaders were summoned to do the anointing, but have refused this service to one of their own, on unbiblical grounds, until Kerry and his wife should repent of the spirit that has been giving them the dreams of Bible truths their own group has not yet understood, or accepted, but which are vital for God's people living in the end times. When this occurred, through Gordon, an Adventist friend to the couple, I was summoned to assist.

When we had heard of the moving of God's Spirit in their lives, I told Kerry, "The passage in James 5 says to "Pray for one another". Would you be willing to pray for me, even before I pray for you?" He agreed, and I remembered that my wife Judi had requested prayers that her own illness be lifted sufficiently for her to be able to sing and play her worship and praises to God again among His people. I asked Kerry to anoint me with oil on Judi's behalf to that end. When he had done so, he placed hands on both of my shoulders and prayed that if his life must be taken in exchange, to grant my wife her request.

Then I anointed him with oil, the Spirit moving me to inscribe the shape of the two tablets of the Ten Commandment Law, which had been clearly featured in the dreams and visions he has received, on his forehead, along with the shape of the cross. We had already discussed these twin marks of God's true end time people, as they appear in Revelation 12:17:

"And the dragon (Satan) was enraged with the woman (God's true people in all ages), and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring (God's end time believers) who (here come the two marks, so watch closely...) KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD, and HOLD TO THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS."

That's from the New American Standard Bible, which I happen to have on the desk beside me, with the () marks enclosing the Biblical interpretation of the symbols involved.

We are in the time when God is sealing His people for what lies just ahead, through His Spirit. His people have two marks:

1. They keep God's Ten Commandment Law (Exodus 20:3-17)

2. They trust in Jesus' blood alone to pay for their past violations of that Law, and to give them power needed through His Spirit to fully comply with every detail of its teachings.

The symbols traced in oil on Kerry's brow signify his acceptance of these very things, which includes an acceptance of the seventh-day Saturday Sabbath of the Bible, which is in the heart of God's eternal law, and is reaffirmed repeatedly in the New Testament writings through both precept of Jesus and His apostles, and in explicit teaching.

The group to which Kerry and Terry belong is a fervent and devout Christian denomination, who have an ongoing desire to be freed from all sin, and to come into God's presence. This occurs, of course, through the sanctuary, in Bible times, and especially now, as Jesus completes the final acts of His ministry in the heavenly sanctuary before returning to earth for His Bride, the Church. When I visited among them a number of months ago, their congregation had just completed an entire series of meetings seeking to draw nearer to God. Yet the pastor told the congregation, "We must still press on to come nearer to God!" He was correct. Something was missing in his own religious experience and what he did not possess, he could not pass on to his people.

"There is one portion of the Ten Commandment Law that was symbolized as the cleansing blue flame in your vision that your church stands in violation of every time they meet to worship," I told Kerry. "That is the fourth commandment, which specifies the seventh day Saturday Sabbath as the day set aside by the Creator Himself to meet with Him in worship. Sunday, based on mere human tradition, arising from the Papacy of Rome, as signified by the Little Horn power on the head of the dragon of Daniel 7, is the authority behind the shift of day. And each of us is a servant of the master we choose to obey: Either the god of the Vatican, a mere human authority contrary to the Law of God, or the God of the Bible, as He expresses Himself in the Ten Commandments and in the rest of the teachings of the Bible."

"I never thought I would observe the seventh-day Sabbath," Kerry informed me, as he saw the significance of both the Scriptures themselves, and also their application to the specifics of the dreams/visions he had been given, which so aroused the opposition of an increasingly spiritually-abusive church leadership. Others of his congregation told him they believed some of the things he had said and done were correct, but that they feared to acknowledge this openly, as they would be shunned, too.

At present in two congregations of this very closed group, four marriages have been broken up by the leadership of the congregations attempts to insert themselves in decisions rightfully left between husbands and wives. These couples love each other, but are divorced and living apart, wishing to reunite, but have the men unwilling to allow the church leaders to dictate the inner workings and decisions they hold rightfully belong to a man and his wife, not to a pastor and another man's wife.

Please be praying not only for Kerry and Terry, but also these four other couples. None have remarried. All wish to return to their spouses. But the women involved fear being lost forever if they accept their own husbands' authority within their home above the intrusive authority of their local spiritual leaders. This is the larger healing that needs to occur. Please pray for an even larger anointing so that this currently unresolved open wound may be healed, and these marriages restored, as God intends.

The State of Modern Marriage: An Opportunity for Purity

When Jesus said people would be "marrying and giving in marriage" up until His sudden return, as they were in the days before the Flood of Noah, I believe he had more than simply usual marriages in view.

In our day, marriage is being twisted and turned in all directions—temporary marriages, trial marriages, pre-nuptial agreement marriages, group marriages, same—sex marriages, polygamy, open marriages (both partners have other partners, as well as each other), serial marriages, and even people marrying objects and animals—these and more are a boiling like a overheated pot in human societies worldwide. Television shows devoted to these things, glossy magazines reporting the latest scandals of celebrities, and entire networks serve these things up continually.

This in addition to the removal of marriage entirely by those busy cheating on their future marriages by fornication and living together. Moral wrongs are championed as "Civil Rights," and what is declared abominable is championed by the leaders of nations.

These things are affecting Christians as much as the world at large. In America, a nation claiming to be over 70% Christian, eighty percent of young, unmarried people between the ages of 18-24 are involved in pre-marital sex, compared with 89% of the population at large. Even pastors’ families are affected, with half of all specifically pastoral marriages ending in divorce.

The tattered state of Modern Marriage is surely a sign that the second flood, the coming Flood of Fire, is soon to come to again sweep the earth clean of sin and sinners. (See I Peter 3:7-13 for details.) It also means that we live in an age that is rather like the reputation of Jesus' own home town of Nazareth, which was so proverbial for its wickedness that Nathaniel questioned, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"

With such challenges to Christian purity all around us, however, God is raising up people who in their own lives will demonstrate the value of observing the 7th commandment, and Jesus' own words about purity even in our looking and in our thought life.

Those who have not engaged in sexual sin need strong encouragement from Scripture and the testimony of those who have made good moral choices to support them in doing God's will. Those who have not followed God's guidelines in these things in the past need the promises of God for forgiveness for what is past. The strong strictures of the Bible that protect human sexuality show how precious this aspect of human life is. It is only a great treasure that is stored in a strong safe. But for some, the safe has been broken into already, and hope for a better future is needed. The Bible balances its prohibitions and regulations concerning moral conduct with stories of people like Rahab the Canaanite harlot, Samson the womanizing Judge, Judah the moral crusader tricked by his own daughter-in-law Tamar, King David and Uriah the Hittite's wife Bathsheba in her bath, the wise King Solomon's foolishness of a far overstocked harem, and the Samaritan woman at the well with her five exes and the new guy she was shacking up with.

As for adultery in all its pre-marital, extra-marital, and non-marital forms: The Bible says, "Don't do it, but if you have, God isn't done with you quite yet. There is still hope to ‘go and sin no more.’"

The fact is, the current state of marriage is not only the fulfillment of prophecy pointing to Jesus' soon return, it also provides an excellent conditions for forming a strong moral character. It is the oysters that grow channels where the waters rush most violently that grow the thickest shells. It is the tree still standing on a mountain top after the storm has broken down the forest around it that knows the full strength of the wind. The finest sailors learn their skills only by braving the roughest seas.

Black Pearls

A Gypsy, my Mother,
My Father, an earl.
When he saw her dancing,
He promised her pearls.
When he saw her prancing
With passion and fire,
He paid gold to have her,
To have her, to have her.
He paid gold to have her,
And quench his desire.

I've no place to go,
There's no turning back.
All I own I can carry
Here in my pack.
Like a leaf that is blown
By a cold, lonely wind--
I'm swirling along
Down a road without end.

Bright gold he did give
To men who were strong.
They toppled her wagon,
Then dragged her along--
To his castle of stone,
In a tower so high.
He tore off her gown,
Her gown, her gown.
He tore off her gown,
And she spit in his eye!

I've no place to go,
There's no turning back.
All I own I can carry
Here in my pack.
Like a leaf that is blown
By a cold, lonely wind--
I'm swirling along
Down a road without end.

She was but a Gypsy,
And he was an earl.
When he'd spilled his seed,
He tossed her black pearls.
He toss them, he tossed them--
These pearls in my pack.
She gave them to me,
I'm bringing them back.

I've someplace to go,
There's no turning back.
All I own I can carry
Here in my pack.
Like a leaf that is blown
By a cold, lonely wind--
I'm swirling along
Down a road without end.

At twilight, I entered
His castle so high.
I climbed his strong tower,
Far up in the sky.
I tossed him black pearls,
Then I watched him die.
His blood on my hands,
On my hands, on my hands.
His blood on my hands,
And her knife in his eye.

I've no place to go,
There's no turning back.
All I own I can carry
Here in my pack.
Like a leaf that is blown
By a cold, lonely wind--
I'm swirling along
Down a road without end.

She was a Gypsy,
And he was an earl.
When he saw her dancing,
He promised her pearls.
When he saw her prancing,
That lithe, gorgeous girl,
He paid gold to have her,
To have her, to have her.
He paid gold to have her,
But she scorns black pearls.
He paid gold to have her,
But she scorns black pearls.

I've no place to go,
There's no turning back.
All I own I can carry
Here in my pack.
Like a leaf that is blown
By a cold, lonely wind--
I'm swirling along
Down a road without end.

c2010 Skip Johnson
All rights reserved

I've read in a book of the Gypsies, a race of about 12 million wanderers, about 2/3rds of whom live in the nations of Eastern Europe. They have no homeland, no dream of a homeland, no heroes, and no religion of their own. The Gypsies claim that when God was passing out religions in dictating the various Holy Books, that the Holy Book of the Gypsies was written down on cabbage leaves, and quickly became a donkey's dinner!

As a group, Gypsies have been persecuted in many nations through the centuries in a manner similar to the Jews. During World War II, they suffered in the Nazi concentration camps along with Hebrew people. Even in “good times” Gypsies suffer repeated exploitation. They live, on the average, only 2/3rds as long as the people around them.

Gypsies are natural storytellers, singers, and legend weavers—traveling entertainers among the nations they rove. They have an innate need to amuse those around them, and themselves, even if that means greatly embelishing a story--or telling an outright lie. At times, they have fallen into sexual exploitation and even turned to prostitution in order to survive. Their girls marry at the age of 12 or 13, and often have children of their own when they are still playing with dolls. They travel in caravans, with the richer having covered wagons with narrow windows, and the poor far less. The men lead the procession, with the women and children coming along behind in wagons. Only in recent times has their unusual language been reduced to writing.

This lyric is straight-forward storytelling, a tale of revenge by an exploited Gypsy girl on the powerful man who used her for his own brutal pleasure, then paid her in black pearls--as though she had agreed to sell what he had stolen from her. It is a dark tale, certainly—and sadly one that has been played out in endless variations by men who act on their passions, imagining themselves safe because of their position of power over their victims. In this sense, the Gypsy girl is every woman who has been sexually exploited. But on a deeper level, this ballad serves as a human illustration of a Divine truth recorded in the Holy Book of Christianity. The apostle James says:

“When tempted, no one should say,
'God is tempting me.'
For God cannot be tempted by evil,
nor does he tempt anyone;
but each one is tempted when,
by his own evil desire,
he is dragged away and enticed.
Then, after desire has conceived,
it gives birth to sin;
and sin, when it is full-grown,
gives birth to death.”
James 1:13-15 NIV

Here, the lecherous earl's evil desire literally concieved and gives birth to that, which when full grown, brings about his death—his own illegitimate son. Such half-breed children were counted as belonging to their mother's people. The earl's son is both the singer of this song, and also the equivalent of the Jewish Blood Avenger. He is honed as the means by which the Gypsy girl finally repays her perpetrator--and returns his black pearls.

* * *

The Blind God

************************************************
"Don't!" His mouth formed the word. But I was on a roll now. We'd see who would make who do what. I stiffened my thumb into a hard stub with its sharp nail a blade. I held this weapon steady with my other hand. Then I gritted my teeth, and punched God's eye out.
************************************************


I poke my finger into my eye, and God winced. This made me smile. I wasn't pleased with Him being God. I disagreed with what He allowed to occur, what He said was so, and who He, unbearably, was. Now I'd inadvertently stumbled onto a way to strike back at high heaven. I poked my finger into my eye a second time, just to check. Sure enough, it worked. God winced again, shifted on His throne and regarded me with alarm.

Now it hurt badly to poke my own eye. But the heady rush of being able to make the Almighty suffer, to have Him in my control, to torture and make Him writhe like a worm on a hook felt even better. It was worth it. By now the pain in my self-injured eye was excruciating. Tears ran down my cheek, and the other eye began watering in sympathy. I wiped them both enough to get another quick peek at God. He had His hand over His own eye. He was rocking forward and backward. Streams of brine ran down His great cheek.

I laughed. Now I was god to God. This was a brave new world of untold possibilities. I could control Him like a puppet. With Him out of the way, I could do, think, and be whatever I wished. God looked at me and shook His great white mane.

"Don't!" His mouth formed the word. But I was on a roll now. We'd see who would make who do what. I stiffened my thumb into a hard stub with its sharp nail a blade. I held this weapon steady with my other hand. Then I gritted my teeth, and punched God's eye out. The pain tore through my head as my injured eye exploded in its socket, beyond recovery or repair. I clutched my face, and cursed the God who allowed such pain--which He might have prevented. How could He be so sadistic? He was supposed to be kind. He was supposed to be powerful. Why didn't He do His job and stop such senseless tragedy?

It was a long time before the tears in my remaining eye slowed enough so I could see God again. He was sobbing, the tears streaming from both His eyes. Then I raged at Him, sitting there weeping--His two uninjured eyes like spring-fed pools. If I could have reached Him, I would have torn Him from His throne and cast Him to the ground, and with my two strong thumbs blinded Him forever. But He was out of my reach. So I did the only thing I could. I clutched my wrist and stabbed with my thumb again, deep into my remaining eye--and screamed.

There was a brief electric flash like a jolting bolt of lightning. Then all was darkness. The fluid from within ran down my cheeks--thicker than tears or blood. Now I would live by feeling alone, not by unwelcome sight. God couldn't see me. He'd be hurting too much. He'd be blinded by tears. He'd be in agony, writhing on His haughty, humbled, almighty, powerless throne. I'd found the way to beat Him, to shut Him out forever. A curtain of darkness had fallen, and I was free at last.

For a long time there was only darkness and agony. I held my ruined face in my hands, and rocked in the blackness to reassure my body it still existed. For hours, days, years I stumbled anf fumbled in this new world of my own creation. I listened. I smelled. I groped. It was an empty relief not to have to deal with God anymore. Regrets were useless. There was certainly no turning back. During that time I bumped into things and injured myself often. I fell into nothingness when it opened unexpectedly before me, and struck the unmerciful bottom when it lashed up to catch me.

There were things in this darkness--things stronger than I--that stank loathsomely, and hissed and wretched horribly. Sometimes they caught me and tore at me. I couldn't protect myself from them. I was their plaything and slave until they lost interest and abandoned me.

But mostly, I was alone. Very much alone.

Centuries passed, or seconds. I crawled yards, or miles, or in circles only a few feet in diameter for all I knew. I slept and woke and dreamed and wandered in utter blackness. Sometimes I still cursed God. But now it was mechanically and without passion--more for the comfort of the sound of my own voice. After all, I had disposed of Him. He was gone. I had a part in His world once, but He had no part in mine. Did He still exist somewhere? If He did, could He see me?

Finally, I lifted my head.

It was then I felt Fingers touch my face. I'd been alone so long that I didn't draw away. They gently soothed my rough sheek, and tenderly traced the hollows that still oozed and ached endlessly. Then the Fingers drew away. I lifted my face after them. "Don't go," I whispered to the night.

In a few moments, the Fingers returned. I felt their strength and purpose, yet they were trembling as they touched me. They found my cheeks, fumbling with my face, and finally located my empty sockets. Suddenly there was firm pressure in the center of both eye sockets. Lighting flashed again. The Fingers drew away, and I could see.

I looked up into the face of God. But He couldn't see me. He had no eyes. He had given them to me.