For my thoughts are
not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are
higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts
than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).
In my dreams, even in my nightmares, I can see, I am not
blind. Once, on a ship, heading towards the North Pole, we were in a terrible
storm. We hung on to ropes as we attempted to walk from place to place, could
barely sleep in a bunk. The captain said to me, this ship was built for a storm
such as this. Early settlers, the great plains of our nation, woodlands and
weeds, inevitable prairie fires, the homeowner would always burn the vegetation
around his house for at least one half of a mile so that the prairie fires
would go around his home. Seeing is not believing, believing is believing. You
will stay in trouble the rest of your life, in darkness-blindness if you depend
on other people to give you the truth. Truth is truth whether anyone believes
it or not AND, the word of God is truth, all the truth we need.
The best University is the school of hard knocks. One of the
most striking things about disability, any person you meet, always can tell you
about someone who is in worse shape than you. Please God, just once, let some
family member, friend, even stranger say to this totally blind man, who in
everyway does the very best he can everyday "I am praying for you."
It takes a real man to stand up for Christ. At 85, even if I were to live to be
100, my life is just a blink compared to eternity. We spend our entire lives
looking at bars over windows, protecting things, that we really don't want.
Shrouds have no pockets. The world's greatest insurance policy, nothing can separate
us from the love of God in Christ. "For I am persuaded, that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things
present, nor things to come, nor
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans, 8:38-39).
I heard one of the greatest spinal surgeons in the world say "Most back pain can be eliminated with one action, forgiveness." He said, "There may be some need for back surgery, but most back surgery is unnecessary, just learn to forgive." God has told me to QUELL my bitterness... to forgive employees who have walked out of my house-businesses carrying my things. He has told me to forgive my family, relatives, associates who have ignored me, "despitefully" used me. God has told me to forgive a government with no concern for its citizens. It is beyond my comprehension that I know people, my fellow citizens and even family members, who support and vote for the Democrat party: A party that puts such evil as Obama and his ilk in the White House, a party that promotes the killing of unborn babies. Sound is the blind person's best friend, radios, reading machines. 50 years ago the VA promised me a machine that could read books to me. I finally received this equipment one year ago (mail and the Post Office system is slow). I cannot tell anyone how much I have enjoyed listening to books. Is it not strange, that in spite of the VA's insolence-ineptness, that not one relative, church member, neighbor, employee ever attempted to help me with this pleasure? You see, most people think that nothing bad will ever happen to them... never any disability. Sighted people see things around them; the blind hear things around them, and know they are there, the blessing of raindrops on leaves, even the sidewalk. Sighted people think they hear birds singing, but the blind hear every note, their individual voices.
Stay out of the holes of life, the hole of discouragement-despondency-despair. Today is tomorrow that never came, we can do nothing about the past and very little about the future, we only have today. The good news-the Gospel, eyesight or not, we walk by faith not sight. Faith is action supported by belief, sustained by confidence, don't limit God, death is the easy way out. Christian is a census term. For those who are not Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu it is easy to declare yourself a Christian. Most people I have known who have called themselves Christians, just have their hand on the doorknob. They never really open the door of faith and enter the all-consuming room of total grace.
We are told that followers of Christ were first called Christians at Antioch. It was a demeaning term. There is bareness with many church members about being called Christian today. I hear many church members speak of God, but few talk of Jesus. The Gospel, The Good News, sins ruin and Jesus Christ redemption. The greatest thought that should come to any Christian, in death, thankfulness for salvation. I so remember when my precious mother died, her sisters were in the next room when I went in and told them it was all over. They said nothing about my mother's Christian life, their joy at her home going. They went to talking about flowers for the funeral. I am sure out in the countryside where she had lived her entire life when the news of Miss Sally's death reached the homes, most talked about frying chicken and fixing potato salad. Death has become so sanitized, just the rituals and formalities. The blind sees beneath the veneer of pretending.
I heard one of the greatest spinal surgeons in the world say "Most back pain can be eliminated with one action, forgiveness." He said, "There may be some need for back surgery, but most back surgery is unnecessary, just learn to forgive." God has told me to QUELL my bitterness... to forgive employees who have walked out of my house-businesses carrying my things. He has told me to forgive my family, relatives, associates who have ignored me, "despitefully" used me. God has told me to forgive a government with no concern for its citizens. It is beyond my comprehension that I know people, my fellow citizens and even family members, who support and vote for the Democrat party: A party that puts such evil as Obama and his ilk in the White House, a party that promotes the killing of unborn babies. Sound is the blind person's best friend, radios, reading machines. 50 years ago the VA promised me a machine that could read books to me. I finally received this equipment one year ago (mail and the Post Office system is slow). I cannot tell anyone how much I have enjoyed listening to books. Is it not strange, that in spite of the VA's insolence-ineptness, that not one relative, church member, neighbor, employee ever attempted to help me with this pleasure? You see, most people think that nothing bad will ever happen to them... never any disability. Sighted people see things around them; the blind hear things around them, and know they are there, the blessing of raindrops on leaves, even the sidewalk. Sighted people think they hear birds singing, but the blind hear every note, their individual voices.
Stay out of the holes of life, the hole of discouragement-despondency-despair. Today is tomorrow that never came, we can do nothing about the past and very little about the future, we only have today. The good news-the Gospel, eyesight or not, we walk by faith not sight. Faith is action supported by belief, sustained by confidence, don't limit God, death is the easy way out. Christian is a census term. For those who are not Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu it is easy to declare yourself a Christian. Most people I have known who have called themselves Christians, just have their hand on the doorknob. They never really open the door of faith and enter the all-consuming room of total grace.
We are told that followers of Christ were first called Christians at Antioch. It was a demeaning term. There is bareness with many church members about being called Christian today. I hear many church members speak of God, but few talk of Jesus. The Gospel, The Good News, sins ruin and Jesus Christ redemption. The greatest thought that should come to any Christian, in death, thankfulness for salvation. I so remember when my precious mother died, her sisters were in the next room when I went in and told them it was all over. They said nothing about my mother's Christian life, their joy at her home going. They went to talking about flowers for the funeral. I am sure out in the countryside where she had lived her entire life when the news of Miss Sally's death reached the homes, most talked about frying chicken and fixing potato salad. Death has become so sanitized, just the rituals and formalities. The blind sees beneath the veneer of pretending.
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