In a suit, even if you're having a nervous breakdown, you still look
like you are in charge.
Paul Feig
Paul Feig
The total uniqueness of God, the uniqueness of the Christian
faith, lies in the uniqueness that God understands that we need to trust Him,
not why, but who, in all things. The poet said, "More things are wrought
by prayer than this world dreams of."
In other articles, this writer has described in detail that
he is a conservative... conservative in everything. Many have called me frugal,
even a tightwad. In college, my nickname was "iron pockets" because,
I was careful in every penny I spent. I am now considered a very wealthy man,
but nothing has changed in my spending habits. Show me a man's habits and I
will tell you much about the man.
I do not own one article of clothing that was purchased new.
I buy everything used. The pair of shoes I have, at this instant, were
purchased at a thrift store for the sum of one dollar. I do not have a shirt
that costs over 25 cents. I believed God when he told us to "deny
self." "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Luke, 9:23). The money you spend on things, even expendables, such as clothing, you can never invest AND, you only make money with money AND, you are able to give for God's work with "blessed" money.
Ernest Mansour, owner of a clothing store in the town wear I live met me on the street and said, "Doctor, come into my store, I want to show you something." We went towards the back and he pulled out a beautiful suit of clothes. He said, "Try on this coat." I said, "It fits perfectly." He said, "Go into the fitting room and try on the trousers." The trousers fitted perfectly, waist-length-everything. I said to him, "This suit fits me perfectly, but I can't afford this expensive suit." He said, "Doctor this suit is a gift from me to you." Then he said, "I might as well tell you the truth. One of the flight officers out at the air force base came in and bought this suit. His next flight, his plane crashed and he was killed. I can't ask his wife to pay for this suit and I knew that he and you are the same size." Ernest new my size because he had fitted a tuxedo to me, which I had purchased from him second hand. Back then, a lifetime ago, I often needed formal wear when I was speaking or participating in a gala, political or professional event of some type. I had decided to purchase a tux instead of continuing to rent one. Of course, I was very happy with the "dead man's suit" because until this day, it was the only new suit I have ever owned.
I was raised at a time before sports jackets-blazers. From youth, real boys-real men wore suits, you only had one, your Sunday suit. I knew old men, relatives, who never had but one suit their entire adult life. Men did not gain weight, today's world, men like women's weight fluctuates up and down, as 30 billion dollars is spent each year on diet methods. Men wore their suit on Sundays, to funerals-graduations-court appearances-special occasions. Even after their hair turned white, you recognized them more from their suit than their appearance.
I was just a child, left in the backseat of the car, my parents went up to the graveside service at the old Nahunta Cemetery. Back then, the only people who had funeral home or graveside services were those who had never become a church member. Nowadays, families have become so cheap and funeral homes so greedy, that until recent years church member's funerals were always held in the church where they had been faithful, now, things have changed. But, on that day, at the old Nahunta Cemetery family and friends had gathered around for a graveside service for an old reprobate who had died and, they always opened the "box" so everyone could see the deceased (Viewing the dead is still the most asinine practice in a civilized culture. I have known people to line up to look at dead people. I understand there is a black funeral home that allows a drive thru viewing window. There is nothing more uncivilized than stalking-staring at a lifeless individual... TAKING AWAY ALL THEIR DIGNITY). As a child, the thing I remembered most THAT DAY, I heard one daughter cry out, "I will never see my daddy again!" And so it probably was, because her only hope of ever seeing her daddy or anyone else would be if she and they are in heaven AND, no one had ever seen her "Daddy" inside a church or showing any profession of faith, in fact he mocked the church. I remember my mother saying, as she returned to our car, "It was the first time I ever saw him in a suit of clothes."
One of my best friends died. His wife asked me to take his best suit down to the funeral home and to make sure he was dressed correctly. I had never seen an undertaker dress a dead body, I did that day, watched him dress my good friend. The first thing he did, was to cut up the clothes, cut the suit coat right down the back. You see, it is a matter of putting clothing together on a dead stiff body. This is the reason, my friend, the mortician, had told me that he always purchased all the strange sized suits and shirts from the local stores. The size does not make any difference on the dead man. You run the shirt sleeve up the arm until the cuff appears out of the suit coat. The shirt is put on in pieces, so is the suit. You have heard people say, to someone well dressed, "You are put together well." Now we know where that comes from. The deceased must be put together well for the final staring of the family and friends. The mortician tells me that it doesn't matter, few people touch the dead, mess with clothing. But, I have heard, that often, it is different with a black funeral, a black mortician, where family members get more aggressive in their farewells.
Yesterday, this very town, some dispute involving four thousand dollars. One man walked up to another at a gas station, victim filling his gas tank and the other man shot him dead. Then reached over into the car where the gasoline was being pumped and shot the man's wife, not killing her yet, but killing the unborn baby within her body. Her three small children all under the age of 8 were in the backseat. Does anyone believe that all dead people are alive? God tells us that the unsaved are dead while they are alive. That dead, unborn baby, like the dead father, had a body built by trillions of cells. Each cell, total personhood of the individual, has enough DNA information to fill one thousand typed pages. If a single cell's DNA was on one strand it would reach to the sun and back. Every single cell of the trillions in the body, whether the unborn baby or the adult father, gives a complete history of ancestry.
Like the trillions of snowflakes which fall to earth, no two alike, this gives one just an indication of the magnificent greatness and design of the God who we worship. And to think, there are still those unbelievers who believe they are alive, dead people walking in dead clothing.
Ernest Mansour, owner of a clothing store in the town wear I live met me on the street and said, "Doctor, come into my store, I want to show you something." We went towards the back and he pulled out a beautiful suit of clothes. He said, "Try on this coat." I said, "It fits perfectly." He said, "Go into the fitting room and try on the trousers." The trousers fitted perfectly, waist-length-everything. I said to him, "This suit fits me perfectly, but I can't afford this expensive suit." He said, "Doctor this suit is a gift from me to you." Then he said, "I might as well tell you the truth. One of the flight officers out at the air force base came in and bought this suit. His next flight, his plane crashed and he was killed. I can't ask his wife to pay for this suit and I knew that he and you are the same size." Ernest new my size because he had fitted a tuxedo to me, which I had purchased from him second hand. Back then, a lifetime ago, I often needed formal wear when I was speaking or participating in a gala, political or professional event of some type. I had decided to purchase a tux instead of continuing to rent one. Of course, I was very happy with the "dead man's suit" because until this day, it was the only new suit I have ever owned.
I was raised at a time before sports jackets-blazers. From youth, real boys-real men wore suits, you only had one, your Sunday suit. I knew old men, relatives, who never had but one suit their entire adult life. Men did not gain weight, today's world, men like women's weight fluctuates up and down, as 30 billion dollars is spent each year on diet methods. Men wore their suit on Sundays, to funerals-graduations-court appearances-special occasions. Even after their hair turned white, you recognized them more from their suit than their appearance.
I was just a child, left in the backseat of the car, my parents went up to the graveside service at the old Nahunta Cemetery. Back then, the only people who had funeral home or graveside services were those who had never become a church member. Nowadays, families have become so cheap and funeral homes so greedy, that until recent years church member's funerals were always held in the church where they had been faithful, now, things have changed. But, on that day, at the old Nahunta Cemetery family and friends had gathered around for a graveside service for an old reprobate who had died and, they always opened the "box" so everyone could see the deceased (Viewing the dead is still the most asinine practice in a civilized culture. I have known people to line up to look at dead people. I understand there is a black funeral home that allows a drive thru viewing window. There is nothing more uncivilized than stalking-staring at a lifeless individual... TAKING AWAY ALL THEIR DIGNITY). As a child, the thing I remembered most THAT DAY, I heard one daughter cry out, "I will never see my daddy again!" And so it probably was, because her only hope of ever seeing her daddy or anyone else would be if she and they are in heaven AND, no one had ever seen her "Daddy" inside a church or showing any profession of faith, in fact he mocked the church. I remember my mother saying, as she returned to our car, "It was the first time I ever saw him in a suit of clothes."
One of my best friends died. His wife asked me to take his best suit down to the funeral home and to make sure he was dressed correctly. I had never seen an undertaker dress a dead body, I did that day, watched him dress my good friend. The first thing he did, was to cut up the clothes, cut the suit coat right down the back. You see, it is a matter of putting clothing together on a dead stiff body. This is the reason, my friend, the mortician, had told me that he always purchased all the strange sized suits and shirts from the local stores. The size does not make any difference on the dead man. You run the shirt sleeve up the arm until the cuff appears out of the suit coat. The shirt is put on in pieces, so is the suit. You have heard people say, to someone well dressed, "You are put together well." Now we know where that comes from. The deceased must be put together well for the final staring of the family and friends. The mortician tells me that it doesn't matter, few people touch the dead, mess with clothing. But, I have heard, that often, it is different with a black funeral, a black mortician, where family members get more aggressive in their farewells.
Yesterday, this very town, some dispute involving four thousand dollars. One man walked up to another at a gas station, victim filling his gas tank and the other man shot him dead. Then reached over into the car where the gasoline was being pumped and shot the man's wife, not killing her yet, but killing the unborn baby within her body. Her three small children all under the age of 8 were in the backseat. Does anyone believe that all dead people are alive? God tells us that the unsaved are dead while they are alive. That dead, unborn baby, like the dead father, had a body built by trillions of cells. Each cell, total personhood of the individual, has enough DNA information to fill one thousand typed pages. If a single cell's DNA was on one strand it would reach to the sun and back. Every single cell of the trillions in the body, whether the unborn baby or the adult father, gives a complete history of ancestry.
Like the trillions of snowflakes which fall to earth, no two alike, this gives one just an indication of the magnificent greatness and design of the God who we worship. And to think, there are still those unbelievers who believe they are alive, dead people walking in dead clothing.
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