Today is the beginning weekend of the 64th annual North Carolina Azalea Festival. This is the time in the Tarheel state, when thousands up and down the eastern seaboard come to this port city for the celebration of beauty: azaleas, dogwoods, flowers. Beauty given to all those who have eyesight, an opportunity for the wealthy in the community to have lavish parties, an opportunity for the poor of the community to stand in the streets and watch limousines go by transporting the rich and famous.
John Lennon, one of the famous Beatles said, “life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.” Many of my neighbors here make plans for this extravagance the entire year.
Last week, they buried one of the world's most famous actresses, Elizabeth Taylor. She had seven husbands, beauty, children, fame and wealth beyond compare. She left instructions that at her funeral, the casket would be brought in 15 minutes after the service had started, she always wanted to “fashionably late”. Much younger, much more naive, in the spirit of worldly activities and especially with a wife, I had to learn to be fashionably late because I had been reared on the farm where everything you did, the earlier the better. In the military, everything was early; in my eight years of university education, you learned to be on time. Lateness, improvising we both worldly lessons.
In my climb up the ladder of success, I owned a very nice pied-a'-terre (a home away from home) on the most prestigious street in Manhattan. It was a wonderful launching pad for my trips around the world, socializing with United Nations officials. When the co-op apartment was sold, I left my home in North Carolina and went to New York to sign the necessary papers. In the lawyer's office, there was just the female buyer and her father who was going to give me a check for the apartment. The very attractive young women said, “this is another gift to me from my father. When I graduated from the university I told my parents I was moving to the Big Apple for the two “l”s: labels and love. I love nice labels, big stores, big designers. I have not found the big love, but I am looking for the designer husband. I want to have designer children and a designer home, so I can spend my life with only the finest. Dr. Morris, I love what the world has to offer, and I don't need to be bothered by mediocrity.” I felt her gaze because I knew she considered me mediocre, inferior. Anyways, all I was there for was to get a nice check.
It does not take long to become self-enslaved and even less time to recognize who is self-enslaved: enslaved to the values of the world, enslaved to satanic forces of evil, enslaved in a desperate attempt to keep up with money and things. We are so eager to believe lies, lies told by the world. I have often said to the liberals, those in maddening lock-step to destroy all the basic values of the world: when the world, when the government has lied to you so much, how can you believe anything they tell you?
Just this morning, on one national news broadcast: “there are many dead dolphins, already counting 400, in the Gulf of Mexico. It is not known if the BP oil spill had anything to do with their death.” (Can you believe such nonsense on the air? Of course the oil spill killed the marine life!) “In Libya, the protestors are having difficulty fighting Gaddafi's forces.” (Of course they are having difficulty fighting Gaddafi's armed forces, there is gun control in these police states. Just imagine a group of disgruntled citizens, tired of corruption, tired of enslavement, from the outskirts of your city, weaponless, taking on the government- controlled law enforcement of any municipality or state...people with no military training, no methods or weapons for fighting, none of the supply lines, etc. to stay in the fight.) “The best way for old people to have a long life is to be a retail shopper, it has been found that those who shop daily, live longer.” (Can you imagine such ludicrous news? Of course old people who have the energy to go into stores, fighting the traffic to get there and fighting the traffic when there, having the money to buy, having the eye sight, hearing, mobility to get around will most assuredly outlive those who do not have these assets.)
Most of us love flattery, the best sound on earth is your own name. Most women and some men thrive on the latest fashions, slick magazines telling you what you need in designer everything, latest clothes, latest phrases, latest gourmet. Even at the church, and most “nice people” do belong to a church, just a sprinkling of religion...sophisticated preacher, sophisticated instruments and choir, absolutely, absolutely nothing about sin's ruin and redemption through Jesus Christ. “What do you think I am, a fanatic?” Real faith, real worship, a real evangelical experience belongs to the “holy rollers”. Who wants to be enslaved by a commitment to a transformed life of new creation, rebirth by salvation through Jesus Christ? (Isaiah 55:8-9)
Parents' ultimate responsibility is the passing on of your belief system to your children. Satan can hardly wait to exact his magic on them, just as soon as he can get hold of them, certainly when they leave home for college. Satan wants your children, and once Satan has enslaved them, your chances of ever retrieving them from the morass of the world's value system is remote. The average Christian home, the average Christian church, the average Christian college is not easily recognized by the Christian or non-Christian as being different. It is time to start thinking about our value system, our enslavement to the world.
There are 35 million people living in Tokyo, Japan area, they are some of the world's most strategic planners and gainers of the world's value system. They love labels, big spending, big natural desires, most are eternally lost, having yielded to the world's value system. Most know nothing of God or Jesus Christ. The largest earthquake recorded has already hit close to this city, another is due for the city, just as a great earthquake is due for northwest America. In the final analysis, at the end of the road, individually or collectively, with these seismic events, which enslavement is more important, the world values or God's redemption? Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
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