Thursday, February 27, 2014

What would Jesus think?



This Rockwell painting recently sold for 46 million dollars.

Romans 8:16-17

King James Version (KJV)
16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
~  ~  ~  ~  ~

No Christian is where he ought to be spiritually

(A.W. Tozer)

No Christian is where he ought to be spiritually
, until the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ is being reproduced in his daily life!

Yet even though a person has become like Christ, he will not know it--because humility and meekness are also a part of the transformation of true godliness!

"Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did!" 1 John 2:6

~  ~  ~  ~  ~

                 We all read the book, "In His Steps," by Charles Shelton.  We have all heard the phrase, "What would Jesus do?"  It is far, far, more important to consider, "What would Jesus think of me?" 

                 We are very concerned about, "What will people think?"  Whether a politician, pastor, poet, everyone is concerned about what people think of them.  Many of us spend our entire lives working, sweating to have letters after our name (MD, DO, JD, AIA, etc.) I have known men and women who spent their entire lives working hard, living frugally to amass a large estate.  I certainly admire men and women who achieve an education and wealth, much more than those who just throw their lives away, never achieving or acquiring anything.  In this day of the welfare mentality full of entitlements and subsidies too many children are raised in homes with a carefree (it feels good do it) attitude.  There is real honor in hard work, real satisfaction in accomplishment.  I do believe my mother, grandmothers, women whose real accomplishment was the raising of children, providing a good example of the wife and mother in the community, were given, by God, a look far down the road, happenings after they were gone, to know the blessing of THEIR achievements. 


                 I so remember, the Sunday afternoon, when I took my parents in my car to the home of my sister.  My mother had been diagnosed with cancer.  In her wisdom, she knew she did not have long to live.  My sister had just given birth to the only female grandchild.  I remember my sister laying this beautiful baby in my mother's lap and my mother looking at the baby with such love. I believe she realized she would never see this child grow up, become a beautiful girl, graduate from Salem College, become a beautiful bride with a beautiful wedding, have own home and children, but I believe God, in his love-grace-mercy, gave her a look down the road.  It is essential that human beings, particularly those of use who are joint heirs with Christ know that our efforts in attainment, whether education, finances, or otherwise are not in vain and certainly, for those who live the simple, blessed lives, the real heroes of the world, parents, professors, pastors, who give encouragement and who make it all possible, surely must have a very special inheritance.      

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Quarantine



"Quarantine"

Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.  Psalm 60:12

            The greatest trust-quarantine known to man is just turning something over to God and then just leaving it alone.  Most of us want to interfere with God's work, thinking He needs our help.  IF mortal man could only understand, the power, the grace, the mercy of God.  For God to be God, He does not need anything, just for US to trust enough to turn everything over to Him... our health, our wealth, our future, now and then. 

            Before the telescope, the microscope, any knowledge of scientology, cardiology, or any of the isms that should be was-isms (fascism-communism-atheism), God was in charge.  The ancients, even the old testament prophets of four thousand years ago, even the purveyors of false religions knew there were universal-ecliptic-unsighted powers greater than themselves.  It took a long time for surgeons to learn to wash their hands, uninitiated civilizations to learn to put netting over bodies to keep out insects, to bury their dead away from drinking water sources.  Scripture reminds us that it is the small foxes that spoils the vines (Song of Solomon 2:15), but now, even in the 21st century, in spite of electronic microscopes, so much university knowledge, we still use radiation to cure cancers caused by radiation, we use chemicals (chemotherapy) to cure cancer caused by chemicals.  Forgive me, I did not mean cure.  You do not use the word cure with any disease anymore, just treatable.  If you have not learned, you will learn, that it is up to you to quarantine yourself and your family from the dangers of the world, including care for your body.  Old doctors would not have believed that in a time of modern western medicine the infant who escaped abortion, depending upon the immune system of the mother, as a quarantine against disease, would be immediately punctured with needles to kill off natural immunity. 

            In the mockery of our system in superiors simply because of advanced technology-education (even children talking on phones in their hands), two thousand years after the cross of Christ, we still have more people in the world who are hungry than fed, still depend on torture in warfare.  It should be an insult to thinking people and an embarrassment to God, that even those who believe and trust in Him, give more credence to those in the cistern of disbelief (evolution, supremacy of man) than the proven waters of trust-integrity eternal satisfaction from God's deep well.  When will we learn to separate-quarantine ourselves from disbelief?  When will we learn the uselessness of wrestling (Ephesians 6:12) the world, the flesh, the devil, THAT, the whole armor of God is all we need (Ephesians 6:11), THAT greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.  (I John 4:4) 

            We think we are so smart, degrees, post graduate education, oh the limited mind of man!  In two hospitals, one army, one civilian, just as the dead are children of the dead, just as all dead look like crushed wax paper, this writer-army medical officer, roused the sleeping dead by telling them about their lack of quarantine against disease (carpeting in corridors on which very ill surgical patients were moved, drapery-overstuffed chairs in patients' rooms where microbes of any type could take harbor,  smell of perspiring visitors as the bacteria-toxins on and in their bodies escaped, etc.) .  Any patient, ill enough to be hospitalized, should not have visitors.  Take seriously the matter of immunology which, in the long run, depleted or otherwise, is your only "firewall" against a certain death, in many cases.   Like religion, like politics, like character, so much of our destination is just talk. 

            Many often mean well in their quarantine.  In the "foggy bottom"  of legislative committees of confusion-federal state local, much talk, many tax dollars spent, little accomplished.

            Most of us know there are only three grids of electricity in USA... Eastern, Pacific, Texas.  If terrorist eliminate one grid, the nation will panic.  Yet, never a word from power brokers or talking heads, preparing for this eventuality.  Like eating sensibly, every family should prepare-quarantine itself against the "walking warp" of the unintelligent.  Ambition usually makes men crazy about reality... making money, sports careers of other men, the endless attempt to impress someone (either further up the ladder or below you on the ladder).  Man has the need to excel.  Every politician sees in his mirror himself in higher office.  It is only with the welfare state, an addiction to entitlements-retirements, that men have stopped longing for a good bottom-line.  As dust covers the bible, God's own words to the world, as the great separation of man's wealth and accomplishments widens (a very small percent controls all of the world's wealth), as religious zealots (1.5 billion Muslims) are really willing to die in order to live in paradise (suicide bombers), the time for eternal life, life after death, evaluation not speculation, requires quarantine.  You are either lost or saved, a living epistle (2 Corinthians 3:2), or dead in your sins.  Why the hypocrisy?  We may fool others, but not self.  Immunize self against sin and rejection through the redemption provided with God.  God, creator of the universe, who has the very number of hairs on your head numbered, gave His best, His only son.  What makes us think we can escape the wrath of God, the denial of His son, by not separating, immunizing, quarantining ourselves against everything which God hates? 

Matthew 6:24

King James Version (KJV)
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Dipping from the Cistern



"Dipping from the Cistern"


Choice gems from William Gurnall

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

The gospel is God's heart in print!

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

That book must be worth reading--that has God for the author!

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Do not say that  you love Christ, so long as you can lay those sins in your bosom--which plucked His heart out of His bosom! It were strange if a child should keep, and delight to use, no other knife but that with which his mother was stabbed to death!

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

The pleasures of sin must needs be short, because life cannot be long--and they both end together. 

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Cease to pray--and you will begin to sin. 
Prayer is not only a means to prevail for mercy--but also to prevent sin.

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

To forsake sin, is to leave it without any thought reserved of returning to it again. 

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

The sheep may fall into a ditch--but it is the swine that wallows in it!
Take heed of deliberate sins! 

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

"He who is his own teacher, is sure to have a fool for a master!"

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Of all men out of Hell, none more to be pitied than he who hangs over the mouth of it, and yet is fearless of his danger.

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

A Christian should deny himself of the world's carnal joys and delights, lest the ungodly say, "These Christians draw their joy out of our cistern!"

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

He who has God's heart--cannot lack His arm!

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

It is impossible for an evil heart, to think well of an afflicting God.

  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

"Faithful are the wounds of a friend--but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." Proverbs 27:6 God's wounds cure--sin's kisses kill.

   ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

           
Living among those who call themselves Christians for so many years, I am convinced that most have no foundation at all in Christianity.  I asked one deacon in a Baptist Church, "Do you really believe that Jesus was resurrected from the dead?"  He claimed to believe in Jesus, the power of God, wanted to believe in life after death, but really did not believe that Jesus was raised from the dead... so his entire faith was in vain, his church life a fraud.   Even Jesus' disciples, those who knew Him best, were transformed after His resurrection.   You must believe in the rebirth of the Holy Spirit in your life (your old man of sin and rejection replaced by the Holy Spirit of Christ, Christ living in you, a new creation).

            I have asked college students if they had been convinced by their educated professors about evolution.  Again, they want to hum and haw about believing in God.  The devil believes in God and trembles (James 2:19).  I say to the same college student, "You have seen many machines, much technology, do you actually think these machines just "fell" together, evolved?  That today's technology was not designed by a superior mind?"  God has given us His manufacture's handbook, His answer to every question.  Two thousand years on this side of the cross, are we still too stupid to believe and study every word in His book?

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Profundity




Profundity                     


(Grace Gems, February 20th, 2014)

A proud sinner and a humble Savior

(
William Gurnall, "The Christian in Completer Armor")

"I hate pride and arrogance!" Proverbs 8:13
   ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

"The Lord detests all the proud of heart! Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished!" Proverbs 16:5

   ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

A man may be very zealous and painstaking in preaching--and all the while pride is the master whom he serves, though in God's livery. 

   ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

It is hard starving this sin of pride--it can live on almost anything!

   ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Nothing is so sacred, but pride will profane it. 

   ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

So far as pride prevails, the proud man prays and preaches to be thought good by others--to enthrone himself, rather than Christ, in the opinion and hearts of his hearers.

   ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Pride loves to climb up, not as Zaccheus, to see Christ--but so that others may see himself! 

   ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

"God resists the proud" (James 4:6). The humble man may have Satan at his right hand to oppose him; but the proud man shall find God Himself there to resist him. We must either lay self aside--or God will lay us aside.

   ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

A proud sinner and a humble Savior will never agree! Christ is humble and lowly, and so resists the proud--but gives grace to the humble.

   ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

"If God," says Augustine, "did not spare the angels when they grew proud; will He spare you--who are but dust and sin?"


            During the many years I was in school in Memphis, Tennessee, I was a member of the great Bellevue Baptist Church.  I heard the great pastor-preacher, so famous around the world, make this statement many times, "If I tell my people to go and jump in the river, I will hear water splash.  If I tell my people to jump in the fire, I will smell clothes burning."  This writer was so enthralled by this man's intellect that he did not pay careful attention to these words at the time, but I have since.  To many preachers, servants-shepherds, living well off of the money people have given to God, get too enthused with their own ministry.  They forget the members-followers who are surviving on low pay.  I heard one preacher from Tennessee say he would rather be whipped than go to a clothing store to buy new clothes.  Many of us never buy new clothes, everything we wear comes from a thrift store.  Another television preacher told about how particular he was about his shirts, the quality, having to hang a certain way in the closet.  I have known old church members giving through their frugality to keep a church going, who never had more than 2-3 shirts over their entire life.  One of my old uncles never owned but one suit, one pair of "Sunday" shoes, his entire life, but he knew the church depended on his gifts. 

            I knew one black preacher, patient of mine, who always drove a very large car with a blinking light on the front.  He said, "My folks can hardly wait for me to lead their funeral procession." 

            It is not just these shepherds who get confused about pride, but church members as well.  Would it not be great if the average church, instead of carpeting-pew cushions-climate control would get interested in what goes on with the lost outside of the building?  It is wonderful to have a beautiful edifice, comfortable sanctuary, with beautiful windows to talk about numbers.  It is far, far better for numbers to count instead of counting numbers. It is far, far better to make our worship (worth-ship) sinners a welcoming place to the disabled and the seekers.  How many blind-deaf-cripple do you have in your services?  WE who are disabled truly want and need a church.  Maybe it is like a restaurant owner told me several years ago, "I don't want disabled people in my restaurant because it makes my normal customers feel uncomfortable."  Do those who God chose for His work here on earth have so much pride, are they so proud, that they have forgotten the essentials of the Christian faith? 

            When the first king of Saudi Arabia met F.D.R., he was unaware F.D.R. was crippled, in a wheelchair.  He was totally fascinated by the wheelchair, so F.D.R. gave King Saud his extra wheelchair.  Then, the big-fat-rich king could be rolled around without him even having to walk.  

Monday, February 17, 2014

Consistent Inconsistency



Consistent Inconsistency

GOD, give us men! 
A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;
                        by Gilbert Holland, "God, Give Us men!"

            In F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel, the Great Gatsby, the main character, who lived next door to Gatsby, said, "My father said to me, one can not be too judgmental or critical of others because many have not had my advantages."

            In my lifetime (84 years), I have witnessed the effeminizing of men.  A day does not go by  anymore, that you do not hear of a sports figure "coming out of the closet," proud to announce his homosexuality.  In the Satanic gay agenda everything directed toward the destruction of the home, the despising of Christianity, 

            There was a time that older men whether a farmer or banker, doctor or lawyer, gained much satisfaction in the mentoring-tutoring of younger men.  They were not afraid to be seen in public... an old man eating in a restaurant with a young man.  Now, because of the stupidity of television programs, every young man is so afraid that he will be classified by someone as having "sugar daddy."  One of my old, very heterosexual, very decent-lovable, uncles said to me, "I used to enjoy hugging my nephews, even young men in the community who were coming home from college.  I wanted to show them my interest in them.  The fact, and it is a fact, that I missed them, cared for them, wanted nothing but the best for them.  Now, much to my sorrow, I am afraid I will embarrass them."  

            The real man doesn't care what people think.  The real Christian man was never reluctant to lead public prayer at the church house, stand up for decency at the court house, demand absolutes at the school house.  The founding fathers of our nation, on the way to the church house, not only carried his bible, but his musket as well.  It was up to him to defend his family and his nation.  It was up to him to show the world around him whose side he was on... he was on the Lord's side and was not ashamed of God's book.  At the church, you could hear men's voices leading in the singing the great hymns of faith.  His integrity could not be bought at the court house.  The real man wanted his children taught the essentials of education, not just entertained at the school house.  God help the teacher who made sexual advances towards his child, male or female.  

            A blade of grass appears formidable to a small insect.  Under an umbrella of political correctness, the average man has decided to just go through the motions... raising a family, providing mere lip service to secular as well as spiritual activities.  "Let the politicians handle it... that is what all of my taxes pay for.  Let the do-gooders in the civic clubs handle it, that is what they raise money for."    The consistent inconsistency involves the fact that everyone is just going through the motions, doing as little as possible to just get by and get paid.  In 1871, Frederick Nietzsche,  God is dead fame, said, "Christianity has crossed over to a philosophy of gentle morals."  About the same time, Gandhi said, "I would have been a Christian if I had I not known so many Christians."  Real men, any type background, recognize hypocrisy and admire gravitas-strength of real men.  We honor real men on the battlefield... not the new breed-brood of pseudo hybrid of gay warriors.  

            We live in a world of street smart males, their own language punctuated with curse words, their own methods of grooming and dress, highlighted by tattoos and trousers showing their buttocks.  The prisoner's garb-appearance (trousers lowered to show their interest in anal sex) has become the Satanic emblem of maleness.  Perhaps this is the reason so many males have come "out of the closet" pursuing the attention of other males.  Perhaps this is the reason in 2008 there were more divorces and marriages in the United States.  What woman of any character at all would be attracted to such a male?  Black, accomplished-educated women (women who have pursued an education, who still have an appreciation of morals and values) have told me there are so few black men with whom they can associate that they must look toward white-Asian-Latino races for companionship and possible marriage.  They want nothing to do with black men who have such opinion of themselves.  Perhaps this is the reason 72% of our prison populations is made up of black men, that 52% of all black babies are aborted (black population in America is 13%).  There was a time, in America, where the black male was the foundation of the black family, the black community, the black church.  This has changed.  Visiting black churches, as a speaker, I found the black men have taken a back seat... the black churches are now controlled by black women.  

            The slide toward sociological distress in the black community and in the poor white areas started with F.D.R.  My grandfather was the last landowner in our community to sign the papers hereby farmers gave control of their land over to the Agricultural Stabilization Corporation (ASC), a system of agriculture control still very much in practice.  In this government control, all acreage is controlled by government.  My grandfather said, and I remember it as if it was yesterday, "We have turned our land for which we have worked so hard over to the control of the government and future generations will starve because of this control."  Everything is heading in that direction.  Now, the small farmer has disappeared.  You can not sell anything from the farm (meat, vegetables, raw milk, butter, eggs, etc.) without government inspections.  Farmers, who were the back bone of this nation, (in the 1900s 90% of the population lived on farms) just went along to get along, believing promises of politicians.  Early farmers crossing the planes on covered wagons pulled by oxen, had three absolutes in their possession, their gun, their bible, their copy of Blackstone's law.  Because of the dust bowl in mid-America most finally settled in the farming areas of California and California provides most of the food for the country.  We see now how government controls of everything, including water, has destroyed this productive land.  

            Perhaps the greatest demise of real men has happened in law enforcement.  Here were men on whom we depended for protection.  Now, in various costumes, dark glasses, racing expensive racing cars, law enforcement has become an embarrassment to the community they are supposed to serve.  Several times in my life, this blind veteran, who must depend on others for survival, has encountered criminal activity.  To whom should I go-call-depend?  You can be sure that law enforcement will do nothing except protect the criminal... making sure the criminal has all of his rights.

            Every republic that has fallen, every city-state, every democracy, started with a complete downfall of committed spiritual activity.  Look at the average church, how few you have at prayer services.  The 20th century made a beggar of God.  The church taught the incredible lie that God needs us, our money.  For God to be God, He does not need anything.  We need God and we had just enough spirituality left to play church... a country club with a steeple.  The consistent inconsistency of the downfall of every civilization, the downfall of all morality, downfall of marriage and the home, euthanasia of the old and young.  In the fall of the Roman empire, the newborn were taken to the streets to be trampled by horses.

            The most popular comic books of young boys involve action figures... Superman, Iron Man, Spider or Batman.  Young boys want to emulate tough-hard-dedicated men.  Why not real men with real flesh and blood in your own community?  Why not have real men at your church house, real men at the school house (Coaches are always the most popular men teachers at any school.  They have rules.  They require obedience not only in action but in dress and language.  There was a time when every gym in America displayed these words - 'Sportsmanship before victory.')  There was a time when we had real men at the court house, did not seek a lawyer or judge who could be purchased.  There was a time at your house as at my home, when you did not sit in daddy's chair, when you listened when daddy was talking, when a family would consistently GRIEVE as they followed daddy's casket to his grave... burying a real man.  

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Drop the Rock



"Drop the Rock"

Matthew 5:44 - But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

            During my long years of training and education in Memphis, Tennessee, some of my work was at the veteran's hospital at Millington.  In one room was four WWII veterans without arms or legs... just human beings with trunks and heads.  Of course, they were on special beds with specially trained nurses caring for them.  Men in this condition do not live long. 

            Veterans who are amputees, cripple, deaf, blind, know what they have given to their country.  I get so sick when I hear the pabulum about care for veterans.  Most veterans know they receive very little care.  Patriotism, like Christianity, is mostly talk.  This old blind veteran never even received a white cane from the Veteran Administration. 

            One preacher, seminary professor, said he had his students go to the cemetery and preach to the tombstones.  By doing this they knew what it was all about.  Some of the most impoverished people I have ever known, in my world travels, were missionaries on the foreign fields.  Of course with electronics all over the world, missionary zeal is different from hundreds of years ago.  Yet, it takes real courage to give your life for the cause of Christ among people who hate you, who do not in any way understand you.  Only those who have endured criticism in a home church or home community, could ever endure what might happen on the mission field. 

            Perhaps my favorite Psalm is Psalm 84, when David speaks of mountains and valleys.  I have written at length about one verse in the Psalm which changed my life.  Psalm 84:5 "Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee."  The race is mine, but in no way could I have engaged in the trials of life without realizing my strength comes from God.

            In my car, often at traffic lights, a car will come near me with the radio blasting or someone will walk down the sidewalk with a boom box blaring.  We can understand people who have this much ferocious noise around them have no tranquility of spirit.  In my years of selling bibles, door-to-door, in the summer, windows open, babies and old people unable to escape the noise inside the building.  There was no mystery to me about the depletion of all joys in the lives of some.  How could they have joy, solitude in living amid the clang, clatter, awful words in music which was always too loud for man or beast?  Just imagine a young, newborn baby, growing up amid such violent noise.  We should be surprised that many young people from many of these ghetto homes turn out as well as they do.  Yet, I have heard adults say they forgive their parents and siblings for the turmoil of their surroundings. 

            The most ecstatically happy person in the room when a child is born is the mother of the newborn baby.  She knows the pain of childbirth.  It took me a long time to discover why so many evangelists became preachers.  They had experienced the pain which sin brings and want to celebrate their deliverance. 

            The only time we find Jesus writing anything, he was in the outer court of the temple.  Some male religionists brought a woman to him caught in the very act of adultery.  (John 8: 3-11)  Of course, mosaic law demanded she be stoned to death.  There were so many stones-rocks in the holy land.  On three of the times I was there, in Capernaum, still mostly rocks, I thought that surely Jesus must of sat on some of these rocks.  I remember rock piles near the Muslim homes.  They still throw rocks at the Jews and Christians.  In a day of cell phones, newsprint and news broadcasts, there is not much need for the throwing of rocks.  It is also strange the man caught with the woman in the adultery was never mentioned.  Jesus said to these religious people, just as he would say to many of us who have been judgmental and hypocritical in our evaluation of others, "He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone."

            The greatest deliverance in Christianity, forgiveness.  We must forgive because our fellow human beings are made in the image of God.  We must forgive because our we do not realize the baggage that some fellow human beings carry around.  We must forgive because God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven us.  In the disciples' prayer, where Jesus taught us to pray, he said, "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. "  (Matthew 6:12)  How can we expect forgiveness if we can't forgive?  I truly believe Jesus should have added to this prayer, "we should not put trespasses or temptations into the paths of others."  It is so necessary to start out each day asking God to keep Satan and his temptations away from us.

            I still remember the day our school principal held up a white piece of paper with one small black dot on the paper.  He said, "What do you see?"  Everyone said, "A dot on a piece of paper."  He was trying to squelch a rumor going around the school about a certain student.  The popular student had a perfect record in every area of life.  Someone was attempting to make one dot soil that record.

            In a day where the best seller is the worst smeller, when it is politically correct to excuse all bad behavior, it is so necessary to applaud-rejoice in good behavior, especially forgiveness of sins.  (Philippians 3:20).  When we realize the truth of sins ruin and Christ's redemption we know the full joy of forgiveness, both the joy of our forgiving and the joy of others forgiveness.  Truth is truth whether anyone believes it or not.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Groundhog Day



Groundhog Day

Psalm 27:  1-2

            At my father's funeral, many years ago, one of the preachers said, "When he had his stroke, he was picking peaches from trees he had planted.  I well remember those peach tree plantings...  just stalks."  You would have thought they were old sticks of wood to be thrown away but, these stalks in soil, water and sunlight grew into large peach trees.

            I well remember the day I went to Sears to buy shrubbery plantings for a rental house.  A horticulturalist who was there buying shrubbery for his own house said to me, "Tom, don't forget to prune the shrubbery each year."  I would not have believed by  looking at the straggly-stalks they would ever need pruning but, soil-water-sunlight and they became large shrubs.

            We have just had Groundhog Day, people wanting a rodent to tell us about the future.  Man has always wanted future predictions whether from a palm reader with a tent by the roadside, scriptures from the pulpit, or in this day of technology, models conjured from mathematical progressions.  Standing in the reviewing stand of a long parade, we know what has already gone ahead and what we see in front, but have no idea of what is to come in the parade.  Only God knows the beginning and the ending... our lives, this nation, world history.  The purity of Christianity is the trust that Jesus will always be at the crossroads before we get there.

            The one thing I learned in a long life of clinical care and military service is dead men all look the same.  You can not tell the wealthy, educated, successful from others.  Blind men, like those who cannot read or write, must remember things.  The mystery to this writer in dealing with men, some never think deeply or speak seriously... theirs is a casual lifestyle.  I have known men totally lacking in a museum or art gallery.  In Madrid's Prado or the Louvre of Paris, paint strokes of the masters would not be appreciated (canvases that would sell for millions of dollars).  The only strokes that would impress some men would be those on the golf course.  They clap and yell as millionaire ball players run down a ball field.  YET, in a church house or cathedral, a matter of eternal life-a matter of an abundant life, so quiet and dormant.  In a alcoholic bar setting many men sing with gusto, but in God's house, (AND, they all think they are heaven bound) you barely hear a sound when they sing "My Jesus, I love Thee I know Thou art mine."

            There are pulpiteers (preachers) whose spiritual thoughts go no further than their vestments, politicians responsible for crop controls who do not know a weed from a productive plant, Catholic priests who cannot marry who write books on family life and child care, print and electronic journalists (talking heads) who write and talk about countries they have never seen.  We hear almost daily about Obama appointing ambassadors to nations they have never visited.  (Most ambassadors buy their "ambassadorship" by raising tremendous political funds  i.e. Joseph Kennedy, ambassador to England, and Caroline Kennedy, ambassador to Japan.)

            On one of this writer's around the world trips, a trip of flying from one island to another, while on the Marshall Islands, I met two Americans who were living on a boat.  Both had been high-volume, wealthy financiers in Seattle, Washington.  One of them said to me "We got tired of the rat race, the hypocrisy.  Here, on these beautiful South Pacific islands, we live on a boat, eat fresh food, drink fresh water and enjoy fresh air.  You only go around once.  Why kill yourself in the mad, manmade gauntlet of deceit and persecution brought on by your fellow man?   God has given us life and our health has returned since we have learned to live life."

            I noticed, when visiting with them, they had many friends among the natives.  Each day was like a holiday, plentiful food, basking in healthy sunlight, rest and leisure living.  One said, "We are getting ready for heaven."  Man has the mistaken idea that God needs him.  For God to be God, he does not need anything.  Man needs God.  Living for God, living the Christian life is not complicated, just tough.  The nature of man is wanting to control.  God is able, leave the consequences to him.  "Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's."  Romans 14:8

            If a deaf person has never heard music, then music does not exist.  If a blind person has never seen the color red, then red does not exist.  Those who have never known the sweat of farm work think farming is exciting.  Those who have never known the horrors of warfare, think war is romantic.  The grunts on the front lines know the horror of war.  In Afghanistan, this year, hundreds of women and children have been killed just going through the daily activity of life.  Field grade officers, lieutenant colonels to generals, gain promotions during warfare.  The only truly great Americans are those who are the casualties through death or disability during war.  These are those who are forever young.  Their families and friends will never know them as older people.  A one day widow can not be comforted by other widows.  The things that get you through warfare are the same things that get you through other struggles of life.  You become a friend to pain and you trust in the belief that this, too, will pass away.  The soldier does not look too far ahead, just to a good meal and a warm bath.  Now is all you have.

            On the farm, early in the morning, before daybreak, the sound of rain... You knew the activities of the farm did not cease because of rain water.  You walked in the rain to milk the cows and to feed the livestock.  You were their god.  They depended on you.  If these animals had this reality of this perception, then why not God's chief creation?  God does not needs us, but we need him.  And, He has told us over and over, in His book, His instruction manual, "I will never leave thee or forsake thee."   Hebrews 13:5

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Incident; Accidents





Incident; Accidents

“This is the most transparent administration in history,” Obama, February 14, 2013.

      Dying is only bad when it takes a long time.  Dying, like living, is something you do very much alone, despite what others may think.  No matter what they say, it is a world of meism...  Others don't really care.  Your family and friends may walk by and stare at you while you are laying in a box, but they all just want you to be over, especially if money is involved.

     There is no loneliness like the loneliness of the whistle blower, one who exposes corruption.  Others may go through the courses of political science actually have some knowledge of spiritual absolutes (right and wrong), but when the rubber meets the road they will chose political correctness... They do not want to get involved.  One man revealed a two billion dollar corruption within the giant Japanese Olympus corporation.  His life was threatened and he was run out of the country.  Whether the school house, courthouse, statehouse, or White house, the sunlight of transparency is not very popular.  The president wants popularity above everything else as do the leaders in education, religion and judiciary. 

     This writer from an impoverished life, a concerned, committed Christian and patriot believes in integrity and honesty above everything.  While on the staff of an army hospital to discover that America had not only brought back space scientist from Nazi Germany (Red Stone Arsenal), but the entire staff of an army hospital where they could care for these space scientist.   Later in another military situation where I was attached to a national guard unit, I learned of one officer loading army trucks from a commissary with commodities to sell at his personal store.  I was selected by the governor to represent the national guard at their national convention (San Antonio, Texas).  I had met the adjutant general of the national guard, a former ambassador to Nicaragua, and felt I could, in confidence, report this situation to him.  He said, "oh, this is just small potatoes." 

     Recently, another example of unconcern (National Self Immolation 1603), my experience with Medicaid fraud taking place in a building I own (millions of tax payer dollars involved), my sending a complete summation and photographs to agencies and news organizations which should be concerned with no one responding.  Even your lawyer, in a situation like this, will estrange himself from you.  We learned that family, friends, and associates do not want to involve themselves with people of courage...  People with courage enough to stand up for what is right.  It is easier to live under tyranny than to fight.  All of the silly preaching by pastors and politicians concerning integrity has about the same intimidation in their lives as the force of a black cat... Talk is cheap.  Only in Jesus Christ is our humanity transformed.

1 Peter 4:12-16


12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: 13 But rejoice , inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy . 14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of , but on your part he is glorified . 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. 16Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed ; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

     As the ancient story, a great Trojan horse has penetrated/infiltrated our democratic republic.  The age of casual Christianity and casual patriotism is over.  90% of Christian faith is just raw courage.  It takes courage to stand up against greed, bribery and treason. 

     In North Africa from a very high distance, I saw young men jump with a bungee cord.  They were very much alone.  In Mexico I saw young men jump into the whirling Pacific from very high cliff.  They were very much alone.  There is no loneliness like the loneliness of disability (cripple, deafness, blindness).  In my many contacts with other blind people, I have attempted to describe color because I have not always been blind.  There are more disabled people than African Americans (black 13%, disabled 32%) in America yet, notice how many disabled people are in your churches-restaurants-concerts.  Like the proverbial ostrich with his head in the sand, we want to believe that everything is going to work out and that we will never be disabled or enslaved.  We know that 30% of the stints involved in the human heart fail.  We know that statin drugs, Lipitor, etc. (big farmers' largest money makers), are toxic to the human body.  Our minds are an entanglement of confusion.  We just want our life to be a matter of going through the motions, staying on schedule, eating-drinking-sex, not much different than the lower animals.  The crowning glory of man is his nervous system, a mind that can make decisions, not only for his own welfare, but that of his family, neighbors and country.  We have been provided with the whole armor of God.  Ephesians 6: 10-11.  With satanic forces as with the incidents and accidents of daily life, we must, with the whole armor of God, stand against evil and not back up one inch.