Fill-In-The-Blank Game!

[Sam91]

'Oh praise the name of the Lord our God,
Oh praise His name forevermore.
For endless days we will sing Your praise
Oh Lord Oh Lord our God

Thank You Lord for my brothers and sisters! Thank You Lord that we are one body. Thank You Lord that You are Faithful, Perfect Righteous and Truth. Thank You that You have given us Your Spirit to lead, and guide us, and that no matter where we are in the world, that we are we are always in Your presence.

Thank You Lord that you make straight our paths and that when we trust in You we have nothing to fear.

Lord, help us all as we travel in our daily lives. Help us to keep our eyes fixed on You. Help us to focus on what is pure, good and praiseworthy. To stand humbly steadfast in Your armour. Your helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, sword of the spirit, belt of truth, shield of faith, feet grounded, ready in the gospel of peace. Clothed in Christ with an undergarment of praise in our hearts. Let the flaming darts of the enemy, of life's struggles and distractions, fall to the left side and to the right as we walk on, eyes fixed upon the goal, showing Your love in our hearts to those around us.

Thank You that You have already won the victory and let us walk victorious in You.

In Jesus' Holy name Amen.'

 

[Lost4words]

Thank you Sam for sharing that meaningful and deep prayer.

 

[Sam91]

@Sam91 smiled at l4w and the rest of the crew.

'Oh brothers and sisters, something wonderful and amazing has happened. I took some advice that I gave someone else earlier. It turns out the advice was also for me. I repented. Only this time the chains and shackles of self condemnation fell off. My eyes see again, and my ears hear. I want to read the word, I can praise with a full heart.

Priorities have righted themselves and I just want to follow the Lord again. I wanted to be obedient before but now I REALLY get excited about being obedient again. I was caught up in such a roadblock to prayer and it has gone. I yearn to pray now, before I yearned to be able to pray. I am so, so thankful and this has got to be the best feeling in the world.

That museum was a bit of an idol. I am giving up my idols again. Goodnight all. Praise God for His goodness to us all.'

The others were overjoyed at her news and joined her in prayer that she woukd wake with a faithful heart. Not in the least sorry that she would no longer be sinister because they were pleased about her walk with the Lord.

 

[Lost4words]

In the background one could hear piglet the cat sharpening his nails. He had a draw full of them. And a hammer too!

 

[Lost4words]

It was very quiet on the ship. Only the lashing of the waves could be heard as we cut our way through the buttery sea....

 

[DavidFirth]

Piglet returned! He was covered in seaweed. He held a knife in his mouth. It had slime on it.

In one of his paws he had an eye! It was an eye from the octopus! This cat was definitely a super hero. He spat out the knife, walked over to the tablet where he jumped up onto it and lit a cigar. He was no ordinary cat! He grinned at everyone, winked his left eye and took a long satisfying drag on the cigar....

Wait a minute... is this the cat in the hat?

 

[DavidFirth]

After searching for the new grill the captain finally sat down. He really looked and smelled like a salty dog after that episode. Fish, octopi and cats flying around his beloved vessel? My, oh my.

Anyway, Sam's prayers were wonderful and had put everyone in the right mood just to chill out and pray silently to God for the many blessings He pours upon us daily.

'Wait a minute' cried the captain. 'Where is @GreenWizard? Did the seven seas claim him from us?'

 

[Doctor.Sphinx]

Doctor Sphinx wiped a solitary, imaginary tear from his left cheek. The others in the CF crew observed the tear was not so imaginary as the doctor might have liked to believe. Nor solitary.

The Captain cleared his throat. 'What seems to be the problem, Doctor?' he said, frowning at the other's
lack of protocol. 'No sense in crying over lost leprechauns'.

'Ah. Captain...' answered the doctor embarrassedly, as he wiped away another imaginary tear, 'nothing to do with the leprechaun. Heart problems, I expect. I thought Sam91 had done a good job with her most recent procedure, until I heard her speech. But somehow, I suspect the acoustic perterbations of her voice must have dislodged a blockage or something more serious - a tool perhaps - that she left behind, and I now have this quite unpleasant feeling'. The Doctor indicated the chest area from where the unpleasant senastion was emanating.

'Have you considered the possibility that the pain is unassociated with the curing of your Grandly-Inflated-Ego', asked the Captain.

'Unlikely', explained the Doctor. 'I don't believe in coincidences.'

'Is it a crushing, sharp pain?' asked the Captain.

'No, it is more like a dull pain', explained the Doctor.

'Is it entirely painful?' he asked.

'Difficult to describe', answered the doctor. 'No, not entirely painful. If the pain had a taste, I would describe it as one part grapefruit mixed with one part honey.'

'I think if the pain were anything to do with your most recent procedure, it would be more bitter, more painful, and either crushing or piercing,' explained the Captain wisely.

'I thought I was the Doctor,' answered the Doctor.

'And what exactly are you a doctor of?' asked the Captain.

The Doctor tactfully ignored the Captain's rhetorical question.

'I think it's because Sam said she was no longer going to be sinister' commented @GreenWizard.

The doctor glanced at the little green man, who was no longer so obnoxious, now he had learned the secret to personal hygiene.

It was true that the doctor had always respected the taxidermist's left-handedness, but her sudden rejection of this lifestyle was not the cause of the unpleasant feeling in his heart. 'No, his sadness...' - 'Yes', he realised excitedly, 'Sadness is what I am experiencing' - 'was caused by the fact that his friend had kept an idol, and he had not considered, nor realised, nor so much as lifted a finger to help... Did he even care?'

He realised that his sadness was counterbalanced by a gladness, in that the idol had been destroyed, and @Sam91 was free again to follow the Lord, to put on the whole armour of God. 'Like a bird', he thought, 'but not just any old bird, but one of those birds with a beautiful song that everyone - even disobedient puppies,' he thought, glancing at Lost4words - 'likes to listen to...'

His thoughts were interrupted by @Lost4words mentioning something else about that inane cat he called Piglet. But before the CF crew could collectively roll their eyes at the interruption, or @DavidFirth could complain about the poor discipline in his crew, or @LaSorcia could return from her latest Piratey adventure - a door crashed, and there, dripping with splashes of the formaldehyde it had been previously preserved in, was the Grandly-Inflated-Ego, and looking more ominous than ever...

 

[Sam91]

Sam91 snapped out of her selfish indulgence. Alas, there was still work to be done. Battling the self-replenishing-ego-of-pride-and-destruction was not an easy task.

Yes, she'd need to keep her eyes on the prize but there was work to do here. She realised she would need wisdom from above before she could continue in her mission...

 

[Doctor.Sphinx]

The doctor gave @Sam91 a questioning look. 'Didn't you already...?'

Sam91 shrugged. 'I did all that I could, but it is *your* Grandly-Inflated-Ego...' she answered, as the foul beast came crashing toward the CF crew.

Captain @DavidFirth bravely and strategically positioned himself behind the loyal puppy, @Lost4words, as Sam91 brandished the sword of the spirit and quoted Romans 7:13 - 20, from the ESV.
"Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.'

Doctor Sphinx sighed, as he unsheathed his own sword, which he didn't seem to wield so well as the taxidermist, and continued the passage from Romans 7: 21 - 25, from the KJV.
'I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.'

'So if I understand correctly, I am to be constantly battling this terrible beast?' he asked Sam91, as he deflected a blow from the creature with his shield of faith. 'You can't just put on your yarmulke of painful-but-nonetheless-beneficial-spiritual-minor-surgery and operate, or your yarmulke of exotic-lotions-and-potions-for-the-prideful-but-penitent and dissolve it?' he asked hopefully.

'I did try before, and am happy to help now,' she explained as her sword slashed a piece from the hideous fiend, 'but ultimately, I think this is something you should pray about...'

@Lost4words, holding back and barking to protect the brave Captain, suddenly escaped the Captain's grip, and attacked the looming monster.

The three friends combined, under the wise and strategic guidance of the brave Captain DavidFirth, were able to drive the brute into a retreat, somewhat smaller and more scarred than the Grandly-Inflated-Ego which had initially attacked. Lost4words...

 

[Sam91]

satisfied that the danger for now had passed returned to the calm and influential Captain @DavidFirth. He was yet to hear of David's past heroic deeds but because nobody really wanted to retell old stories Samantha pointed to the part of the captain's log book in which it could be found.

URL="https://www.christianforums.com/threads/fill-in-the-blank-game.1542046/page-179#post-72891556"]Fill-In-The-Blank Game![/URL]

@Sam91 said smilingly 'Doctor.Sphinx I prefer duelling using spiritual weapons rather than those man-made remedies, invented to look like something good but not.

While you were not able to declare what was ailing you Exodus 6:12 ESV version came to mind. But Moses said to the LORD, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?”

It was tempting to offer you the use of my Excellently-precise-lip-circumcisor v1.8 after watching your bumbling attempt. However, I see it would have been the wrong method seeing that although verbose, and sometimes quite a riddler, it seems to be an intermittent problem. However, you are welcome to borrow it if you'd like?'

At this the somehow-much-more-astute-than-anyone-gave-him-credit @GreenWizard rolled about the floor laughing. @Doctor.Sphinx looked on scandalised, his wounded-nemesis-of-pride heal slightly at this and the good doc repented before it had chance to regenerate.

GW between laughs informed @Sam91 that she was infact engaged in double-talk and in need of the tool herself.

@*LILAC confirmed this with 'GW is right, you are seeing a speck in thy brothers eye and having a speck in thine own.'

'But... but... but' replied @Sam91 urging a coherant sentence to come forth but none arrived. The sheer dread of such a tool, and vanity defeated her. Oh the vanity! Tears filled her eyes.

The-more-caring-and-heroic doctor, trying not to be covetous of her yarmulke-of-knowledge-of-rarely-used-Old-Testament-verse, jumped in with 'You announced that you no longer desire to use remediate superficially. I prescribe prayer for you Samantha and to remember this verse: For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say

'But when are you going to fix my nose?'

 

[DavidFirth]

The captain began a rather long and boring spiel of his many encounters with danger and heroic deeds... until @Sam91 slipped a yarmulke-of-silence on his head... then he began to drift off to sleep, dreaming of rescuing all sorts of mermaids and fair maidens many, many years ago...

 

[Doctor.Sphinx]

This time, Doctor Sphinx paid particular attention to the fact that his question went unanswered, the Captain speaking of his adventures with fair maidens and jealous mermaids, of danger and heroic deeds.

Doctor Sphinx asked again, trying to sound casual but inwardly being positively horrified, 'But when are you going to fix my nose?' Could this be why the Pharaoh had not listened to him previously, and why he seemed to never be able to utter the correct words, and why people forever seemed to give him strange looks whenever he spoke...

He stared hard at @Sam91's lips, who was apparently suffering a similar ailment... Sure enough, there it was... An obnoxious overgrowth had invaded the taxidermist's once-fair lips. It was one thing for he himself to have such a malady, but quite another for poor, innocent Sam91, the fresh tears still glistening in her eyes. Suddenly overcome with compassion for his friend, and wanting to demonstrate his gratitude for the numerous times she had rescued him, he determined to restore to her coherance of speech, and to enable her to reclaim the vanity she seemed to have lost with her affliction.

He whispered somewhat embarrassedly to Sam91, being very careful to keep his own lips covered with his hand, so as not to spread the contagion. 'Is there no other cure?'

The other shook her head, torn between a desire to no longer be subject to superficial remediation, and a desire to test out her excellently-precise-lip-circumcisor v1.8, after the legal troubles she had experienced when the v1.7 had hit the market and a number of ungrateful customers had complained. She consoled herself with the fact that version 1.7 had only been marketed as 'somewhat-precise', with the advertising campaign focusing on its doubling as a cure-all for warts and skin-tags. She handed the Doctor an elaborate looking tool.

The Doctor, impressed as always by the apparent technological innovation displayed in his colleague's inventions, was once again placed in a quandry as to hypothesising her origins. At this stage, his guess was leaning more toward Jewish or French, based on the number of circumcisors, yarmulkes and guillotines she kept in her handbag, although the orbital exenteration tool meant that he couldn't totally rule out some variety of barbarian, and the fact that she managed to keep all this gear in such a small hand-bag meant that he couldn't rule out Timelord, either...

'Will it hurt?' he asked, somewhat nervously.

She nodded. 'That's mainly what the court cases were about', she replied.

The Doctor's motions were slow, his heart divided between wanting what was best for his friend, and not wanting to inflict pain on her with an ingenious, but as yet only-tested-on-wart-suffering-customers invention. Captain @DavidFirth continued to dream with the yarmulke of silence atop his obese head, and the @GreenWizard, and @*LILAC looked on worriedly, wondering if between the Doctor's skill and Sam91's inventiveness, she could be cured of this loathsome uncircumcisedness of lip...

 

[Sam91]

Samantha, although completely confident in her simply amazing inventions and the good doctors surgical abilities, fainted in horror.

'Stop you madman!' Said the heroic Captain. 'For a doctor you have bad eyesight. Your 'diagnosis is incorrect. This girl has been stealing ribs from the Captain's table'

He borrowed the doctor's handkerchief, moistened it and wiped the dried-out-but-still-good-doctors-top-secret-recipe-sauce away.

This woke poor Samantha, seeing the 'blood' on the hankie she pleaded for a mirror. She gazed in wonder at her reflection.

'Wow Sphinxy. I can't even see any wound. Your stitches are phenomenal, my invention is perfectly precise. Thank you so much!'

@Doctor.Sphinx hoped that she wouldn't be enlightened as to the truth, rather enjoying the admiration.

'Ahem' coughed @DavidFirth

'Please read the charges against this pilferer @Lost4words ...

 

[Doctor.Sphinx]

The doctor removed a long scroll from his pocket, and began reading the charges against @Lost4words...

'Smuggling, forgery, sailing under false colours, looting, poaching, brigandage, depravity, vandalism, impersonating an officer of the Royal Navy, impersonating an officer of the Spanish Royal Navy, impersonating a clergy of the Church of England, impersonating a nun, inappropriate conduct whilst in the presence of royalty, falsification of Letters of Marque and Reprisal...'

Sam91 raised her eyebrows, surprised. It seemed perhaps that Doctor Sphinx had underestimated the enthusiasm and energy Lost4words put into his after-work hobbies.

The doctor continued, 'Arson, kidnapping, piracy in the Caribbean Sea, perjury, theft, ransacking a rum shipment, stealing a bushel of apples, piracy in the Caspian Sea, staging a mutiny, contemptuous treatment of animals, attempting to steal from the Swiss Bank, piracy in the Mediterranean Sea, piracy in the French seas, defacing and destroying French property on land and at sea, running a gambling house, sacking and pillaging numerous villages, collaborating with secret societies to systemically extort local merchants...'

'Uhhh... Have you about finished, Doctor?' asked Captain @DavidFirth nervously. He had not expected a list of crimes which were literally as long as his arm.

The doctor continued, 'Creating his own currency to avoid paying duties, blockading Bombay port to extract ransom, assuming a false identification, piracy in the British Isles, piracy in the Atlantic Ocean, leading a slave insurrection...'

'Uhhh... Quite, Doctor,' said the Captain. 'That will be enough for us to go on, at least for now, don't you think?'

'Just wanted to give you a flavour of what this particular pilferer is capable of,' explained the doctor. 'Doesn't it make the items stolen from @Sam91's handbag pale in comparison?' he asked.

Sam91 grabbed her handbag instinctively, as her colour reverted to the same shade she'd had just prior to Doctor Sphinx's attempted testing of her invention. 'Oh no!' she cried. 'Don't tell me he's taken the...'

 

[Sam91]

Samantha in her indignance yelled 'Seize him!'

@LaSorcia and @GreenWizard grabbed hold of him before he could bound away.

'Might I suggest borrowing Samantha's yarmulke of truth for the scoundrel?' Said the wise doc.

Samantha after feeling the loss of many of her possessions thought the good doctor's idea scandalous. 'It is very good of you to re-appropriate my belongings'

The good doc began a lecture about treasures in heaven and not amassing worldly treasure...

 

[DavidFirth]

'Pilfering?' cried the captain. 'Here we have before us the scourge of the seven seas!'

'@Lost4words, how do you plea? Or is the slanderous culprit now at a loss for words?' the captain asked, attempting to hide his smirk from the besmirched and from all those present, not with any success I might add.

 

[Lost4words]

I noticed Sam wake up startled! She just had the weirdest dream! She said she dreamt that I was being charged with many different crimes. She sighed with relief when she realised it was just a bad dream!

 

[Lost4words]

I as walked around the boat, I could see that all the rest of the crew were fast asleep.

The sun was rising slowly, casting it's gathering warmth on the tin boat. I stretched my legs and yawned. Time for some breakfast!

 

[Sam91]

@Sam91 watched @Lost4words , willing him to speak. Maybe, just maybe there was an innocent explanation or some extenuating circumstance. With every passing moment it seemed less likely.

Until