Expect The Unexpected

#1782

"We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28 

To know that nothing hurts the godly, is a matter of comfort. But to be assured . . .
  that all things which happen shall cooperate for their good, 
  that their crosses shall be turned into blessings,
  that showers of affliction water the withering root of their grace and make it flourish more
--this may fill their hearts with joy until they run over! 

"As the wicked are hurt by the best things--so the godly are bettered by the worst things!"William Jenkyn

"Poverty and affliction take away the fuel that feeds pride." Richard Sibbes

"God's wounds cure--sin's kisses kill." William Gurnall

"I am . . . 
  mended by my sickness,
  enriched by my poverty, and
  strengthened by my weakness. 
Thus was it with King Manasseh when he was in affliction, "He sought the Lord his God." 
His iron shackles were more precious to him than his gold,
his jail was a more happy lodging than his palace,
Babylon was a better school than Jerusalem. 
What fools are we, then, to frown upon our afflictions! 
These, however difficult, are our best friends! 
They are not intended for our pleasure, but for our profit!" Abraham Wright

This 85 year old veteran, American citizen, committed/concerned/convinced Christian would never have believed, as a child, that he would spend most of his life sightless...in a cocoon of blackness only by faith, not sight, do many of us walk.  (2 Corinthians 5:7)

God forgive me for having so little patience with those around me, family/neighbors/associates who have so much and appreciate it so little.

I was in the depths of Africa, I believe around Goma in the Congo.  I came upon a village where the Christians there were attempting to put a new roof on their church.  The young preacher said, it is a Methodist church.  At one place in Africa, I came across a large "brush arbor" which was a Baptist church.  You know what I was thinking, these destitute Africans doing the best they can with the little they have while I have surrounded my life with people who thought they were doing their best, for our blessed Lord by going to church for 1 hour on a Sunday morning... when they felt like it, living like the unbelieving world the rest of the time. 

I do not sit in judgment of anyone, everyday of my life I pray that God would forgive me for my rotten sins.  The times I have embarrassed him even though I was the bearer of his name even though I proclaimed his grace. 

One day we will understand.  I still remember the day before my own mother died...her body devoured by cancer, in my years as a Army medical officer, doctor,  many hospitals, I still believe the worse part of sickness is the bedpan.  The last thing I ever did for this remarkable woman, my mother,  was when she asked me to put her on the commode... nothing but skin and bones, she must have weighed about 50 pounds, she died the next day, and as far as I know, this Christian woman like her Christian mother before her never did anything but good for her family and everyone else with whom she came in contact. 

The most difficult question you will ever be asked is why God allows good people to suffer.  That is his business... just as he allowed his own precious son to suffer on a cruel cross.

In my long life of world travel meeting and greeting people of every type in almost every type situation, most never "EXPECT" the "UNEXPECTED"... they never think anything bad will happen to them even though 50% of the population have cancer, weather they know it or not, 10% of all deaths are from medical mistakes and 1/4 of all sac atrophic drugs are given to children.  We wonder why so many young people are addicted to drugs, so many commit suicide, so many are not fit morally, spiritually, physically to live around the normal population.  If nothing bad has happened to you, no sickness, no infirmity, no depression, no despair, no disappointment don't get too self satisfied, your day of exposure to the realities of life is on the way.  

Humility

#1781

There is a striking analogy between the Israelites in the wilderness, on their journey to Canaan--and believers in the world, on their journey to Heaven. The history of the former, has been recorded mainly for the purpose of guiding and comforting the latter.

Dear brethren, we are now in the wilderness! This poor world is not our rest! We too have heard of a city of habitation, a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. And many of us, I trust, have been separated from the world and united to that company ofpilgrims who have set their faces steadfastly to go up to the Jerusalem above.

God is our leader, as He was theirs. And as God is our leader, so our path through life is as really ordered and directed by Him, as was the way of the Israelites in the wilderness. True, we hear no audible voice from Heaven, directing our steps; but God leads us by His providence, shutting us up to a particular line of life, fixing the bounds of our habitation, determining our work, our connections, our success, by a variety of circumstances over which we feel that we have no control, and many of which are apparently trivial--but not one of them are by chanceor accidental. And as God is our leader, and as our path in life is prescribed and ordered by Him--so, if we belong to the number of His people, we may rest assured that He is leading us by the right way. 
 
Our experience, indeed, may often resemble that of the Israelites in the wilderness. God may seem to lead us in a circuitous and indirect way. We may be, we shall be, subjected totribulation. We must leave the world behind us, as the Israelites left the flesh pots of Egypt. We must encounter difficulties, and endure the assault of enemies, and sustain trials--such as will humble us and prove us, and show what is in our hearts. Our hearts, too, may be much discouraged because of the hardness of the way. It may seem a tedious, a dreary, a perplexing way--and, when faith is ready to fail, it may lead us to murmur against the Lord. 

There is an inheritance for us, as there was for them. Their inheritance in the land of Canaan--was but a type or shadow of the incorruptible, undefiled, unfading inheritance, reserved in Heaven for us. 

And seeing that God has opened up such a glorious prospect before us--oh! why should we doubt that He will lead us by the right way on our journey towards it. Why should we quarrel with any of His appointments here--if they are all designed to fit and prepare us for such a glorious destiny hereafter? 

Would we take the regulation of our life out of God's hands--and keep it in our own? 

Would we think it safer and better for us to be guided by our own will--rather than by His unerring wisdom and infinite love?

No, our safety is, that we are in God's hands! The Lord is our Shepherd, and we may rest assured, that however perplexing the path may be by which He conducts us--He will lead us like a flock through the wilderness; that while we are in it, goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our life; and that in the end we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever!

"Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom!" There we shall be able to look back on all the way by which the Lord has led us in the wilderness--and we shall then see it to have been "the right way." And, in admiration and gratitude, we shall acknowledge with Moses, "In Your unfailing love You will lead the people You have redeemed. In Your strength You will guide them to Your holy dwelling!" Exodus 15:13

Just one of the great questions of my life, 85 years, which I plan to ask my blessed Lord when these sightless eyes bask in his glory.  Why life is so hard for those who believe and honor him? God rescued the three million Israelite slaves from bondage in Egypt into a wilderness journey to umbel them.  After slavery, Egyptian rule, one would think that they would have been umbel already.  Surely, they had rather to had been umbled in the "Promised Land" of milk and honey instead of the brier patch of that destitute wilderness of course God could have furnished millions of "fiery chariots" to deliver them from Egypt instead of showing them the passage way through the Red Sea.  Then, they had to conquer the seven civilizations occupying the Promised Land.  Never before in history has a walled city, Jericho, fallen just because people marched around it.  If any of your unbelieving friends question the authority or reality of God's word, there is just one 3 letter word to settle the matter, "Jew".  It is a matter of history.  Jericho, 16 miles from Jerusalem is still there.  This writer has been there, seen the archaeology.

God is boss, then as now, just demands our trust.  I have often wondered why there has been so little "fun" in my life, just hard work, hard times.  Why there was so little fun or relaxation in my hard working, tax paying, God fearing parent's lives, my grandparent's lives, so much of the world is having a good time...easy street...we love to read about the lifestyles of the rich and famous BUT, life here is so short.  Do you notice that everyday, when you reach my age, seems like Friday?  Eternity is forever, never ending blessings/colors/music/comfort beyond compare.  When will we learn that we do not think like God thinks, that we have no knowledge of what he has prepared for those who love him.  The way is broad for those on the way to hell where they will forever celebrate in heat and darkness, helplessness the lives they thought were so important here on earth.  Those who have claimed the narrow way like those of whom the earth was not worthy (Hebrews 11:38).  Know the difference.  

Need For Good Answers

#1776

"From bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great  courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance  to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy,  from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage." - Alexander Tyler

            Churches and governments have fallen into the anti-Christ trap. The horror pit into which the world has fallen, technocracy and the control which god has allowed Satan to hold on to worlds activities. When a telephone in your hand becomes a personality, when person hood of groups becomes supernatural reality (Alcoholics Anonymous, vegans , workmen-ship and security of robots.) The human genome must, if any intelligence left at all, fall upon the alter of humility and seek good answers on every direction of the sun dial. Obfuscation, a confused, bewildered, stupefied world population. Most just going through the motions of living. There is more to life than just surviving... eating, drinking, sleeping, exercising... the essentials to maintain homeostasis-physiology-cytology. Even the Christian, "joint heir" ("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" Romans 8:17,) with the creator of the universe have no idea of what it means to have the wealth-resources-comfort of a daily "breathing activity" with the one who threw the stars into space, measures the Himalayas with his fingers, so cares for us, that the very hairs on our head are numbered (Luke 12:7). What a constellation, such an answer for your depression, sleepless-ness, troubled mind.

            IF, as truly chosen, drawn of God, you would study the answer book. In Numbers 29, we find how the old testament, chosen of God, gave ceremonial sacrifices to God. We do not find that they questioned anything, why the unblemished animals of their flocks: why definite measures a flower: why definite goats or rams: why such waste such animals going up in smoke (a sweet savor to God) when probably in a wilderness of destitution, some human beings were hungry. In today's world, the new testament world, we would "compromise" that this sweet savor smoke gets into Gods eyes and he might miss a count. Surely, in today's world, the priest organizing the sacrifice, burnt offerings, might see a particularly tasty looking piece of liver. Would God really miss that?

            Thousands of years later, still, believing Jews, still celebrate "feasts of trumpets." Even in fancy, tall, New York buildings where orthodox Jews live... you still have limbs and tree branches built on to their decks where they sleep under the stars... remembering their ancient family who memorialized their redemption from slavery in Egypt and their humbling in the wilderness AND so many of you do not understand this writers despondency over new testament church members who do not have the time or salvation to observe our Lord's table. If your redemption-Christian experience is worth anything, it is worth everything and this is the most important question of your life. Old testament, believers, were serious about their ties and their offerings. God did not get "tips." God was not just a "bell hop." Prayer was not just a ritual.

            You do not get the answers to your problems or the worlds problems from talking boxes. Most people, with whom I come in contact, are materialistic in every way. Their world evolves money and what money can do. For those who are poor, usually their spending is more than their income... besieged on every hand, on every point on that sun dial, by the Madison avenue concept of keeping you dissatisfied with your world, your living conditions, your clothing, your transportation, your lifestyle. Movies, television, keep us all wanting lives of the "rich and famous." Hell will be filled with the rich and famous. This writer still remembers those saints of old, always in Gods house to worship (not to see and be seen.) Only one Sunday dress apparel-Sunday shoes. Most citizens of 80 years ago, when I was a child, never had but one Sunday outfit. Food was so scarce, exercise so essential, that you kept the same waistline your entire life. You kept your clothes nice and you were usually buried in them. Spring time, your winter clothing, like the bedding, went on the clothes line outside, so Gods good sunlight could detoxify rich resourcefulness of detoxification. Clothing lasted because, like

everything else in your life, you were taught to take care of things. We did not live in a Kleenex-disposable society. I still remember the day when my father and I were moving lumber and a big fat poisonous snake was curled up under a plank. My father killed the snake with a shovel, even though a rifle was close by. "We do not waste bullets." I remembered this many times when as a field grade army officer, I saw so much ammunition wasted, which your tax dollars had paid for. The time for role playing has ended. The time for assuming character on stage is over... church house, school house, court house, even your house. Destination is determined by character. True character, not just role playing on stage, is essential when looking for answers. The scientists looking into the microscope-telescope, forgets the letters after his name-his own ambitions. If a true scientist, he seeks answers.

Reality Enigmatic Plunge At Eighty-Five

#1773

“We have shared the incommunicable experience of war, we have felt, we still feel, the passion of life to its top. In our youth our hearts were touched with fire.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes

 

            When you reach the age of eighty-five, you no longer have fear of death. You no longer have the competitive spirit. You no longer have the fright of un-forgiveness. You have forgiven all those who have wronged you and if they do not accept such, they are on God's hook, after all, with mercy to spare God has forgiven me for all my rotten sins and if he can forgive "the chief of sinners" such as me, I can forgive others and ask forgiveness of others.. commission and omission.

 

            At eighty-five you have given up about your looks, about your ambitions, your relationships, you have learned not to be shocked at anything, to expect very little from the world and those who inhabit it. You realize how little you have affected those with whom you have come in contact. Those who should have been closest to you. Most were just pretending, like bureaucrats, politicians, even  the cashier at the grocery store, "have a good day," ALL were just going through the motions. You realize just how empty most phrases "I'm praying for you," and the death of a parent or friend, someone saying, "they are better off" (how do they know they are better off?) Or, some irrational statement, finding a needle in a hay-stack (most people have never seen a hay-stack, have no idea what it is like.) OR, "killing two birds with one stone" (those who would kill a bird or anything else have no idea about the intricacies of life... even bird life.) Some of these same people would vote for politicians or groups that are for planned parenthood, that would take the life of the most innocent. Most people I know have little concept of photosynthesis (plant life) or the homeostasis of animal life (clotting of blood, etc.) When my great grandparents were children the population of the United States was thirty-one million. Every time we pass a graveyard where these old people are buried, we should give them the honor of thinking about what they accomplished. Now, the population of the United States, three-hundred and fifteen million. Ninety million do not work, nearly fifty million on welfare, almost 200 million draw a government check of some sort.

 

          

In my lifetime, eighty-five years, I have seen America change completely. Just a small percentage of the population controls all the wealth (some say 1%.) Just a small percentage of the population pays all the taxes (some say 20%.) The middle class has largely become the working class, struggling for survival. The "talking box" in the living room, satanic fed desires for ease keeps from an early age, everyone dissatisfied with everything. The court house is over run by those with addictions. The school house has become a place for entertainment instead of education. The church house has become a battlefield for souls with the fight carried on from air-conditioned fox holes. Your house has become just a changing room or filling station. This world traveler (Doctor Morris' passport has been stamped in 157 countries, eight around the world trips... every continent) has see more commitment to false religions than committed-concerned-convinced-dedication to basic Christianity (in a so called Christian nation.) Most churches are just country clubs with steeples. In my days in speaking before civic clubs, I found more loyalty to civic club principles than I found at most Christian churches.

 

            I believe that the thing that bothers me the most, as most of us enjoy the comforts of 21st century living, just how little we appreciate what we have inherited... we are so busy picking flowers which we did not plant.  Never for one day has the poverty of my youth left my mind and not just me, all my family. We left the fundamental denomination of our forbearers of church house which did not have inside plumbing. We were embarrassed about our own homes, homes of love and understanding because of no inside plumbing... old drafty houses. We could not invite friends to our homes or our churches because they just might need to go to the bathroom. Most of our college educated friends had never seen an "out-house."

 

            This writer, like his parents-grandparents-great grandparents before him, followed his blessed Lord in baptism by being baptized in a fish pond (long before an inside baptistery was installed into our country church.) Women did not wear pant suites/slacks to church. Aunt Sarah who died at 98 would go around and use a safety pins to pin the girls dresses between their legs, so that the dresses would not rise up when they got into the pond. All believe in truth. Your truth is not necessarily my truth... your experiences are not my experiences. Our ancestors had not experienced the truth of inside plumbing, electric power, the bottomless ocean of technology. God forgive us for not appreciating them enough, for not celebrating the fact that they did the best they could with what they had.

           

            I participated at the funeral for the first graduate of the North Carolina State University, who died at one-hundred (N.M. Matthews, Goldsboro NC.) He and I would talk about the challenges of this new nation. My uncle turner told me about the first multistory, eight story, hotel building that went up in the county. Men carrying bricks and water, on their shoulders, up many feet to build that building. My great-grandfather wrote about his first experiences with electric lights, when he attended a baptist convention in Nashville, Tennessee. My own Grandmother and my relatives were land owners, talked about picking cotton  the day after her marriage. Can we even imagine the depths of poverty and despondency for the tenant farmers, the black people of that time in history. This writer still remembers studying the primitive medical instruments (still used until the beginning of the 20th century) at the UNC school of medicine, Chapel Hill. I will never understand my treatment as a totally blind, 100% disabled veteran. I will never understand my treatment by relatives who knew full well that I had worked very hard, lived a life of trust in God, to reach this time of disembarkation. I wonder how I would have been treated by my family-relatives-associates if I had been convicted of some crime and gone to prison. It suffices to say that most survivors who have reached the 21st century are just caught up in a world of me-ism.

            Most of us might go to God's house and sing such old Christian hymns as "Jesus keep me near the cross." When Jesus knows, we do not mean a word of it. The Christian religion is a supernatural religion. You can not be a Christian without believing in the supernatural. It is the supernatural love of God and love by God, which gives reality to life even in the 21st century. I so pity those who have no memories. I so pity those who have no hope for the future. Six hundred thousand Americans were killed in the great American Civil War. It was not that long ago, I have known family members who were alive during that time. They had the faith to keep on keeping on. I do believe that faith is ninety percent raw courage. This morning, eighty-fifth year my mind is clear, my body free of pain, ready to take the plunge into the depths of the river of reality. 

Choices

#1772

“If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness." - Victor Hugo

 

            William Butler Yeats said, "The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time." It is hard to imagine that we can not imagine. It is hard not to believe in the laws of nature, the rules of mathematics, what happiness and misery can do to a human being.

 

            When I had sight, I often thought the most marvelous thing in the world was to be born as a good looking man, or a beautiful woman and yet, we all know, that know one escapes the age scars from ones own history. The greatest cause of the death of human being, around the world, abortion, the killing of the most innocent. Only human beings abort their young, lesser animals do not AND those of us chosen for life know how quickly innocence fades. Ever since our first parents Adam and Eve, chose the spirit of death instead of the spirit of life, the sin nature has been born in all of us. It is not necessary to teach a child to sin.

 

            The older I get, the less I understand why people make the choices they do involving the only life they have to live. In visiting by phone with church friends around the nation, I hear the same lament, empty churches. Churches are empty because we have reduced Jesus in order to accommodate the world. Most church members have a self-imposed purgatory, wanting to hold onto Jesus with one hand and the world with the other. "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked." (Psalms 97:10)

 

            This writer was never a member of a social fraternity, not even a fraternal organization such as masons, moose, woodmen, etc. Once, one of my friends, an elk, invited me to go into his elks club with him. I will never forgot the sign hanging in that fraternal-secretive-social group's building. "What you see or hear here, stays here." Then, I knew why the members of the fraternal groups have their closeness to one another, their protection of one another, their knowing the sins of one another, secreted in a building away from the prying eyes of those who might not agree with their alcohol-gambling-pornography. I now know why, so many of us were never asked to pledge college social fraternities. I now know why, young Christian men, fresh from Christian homes, were stupefied when invited to a fraternity house where alcohol, drugs, pornographic films were shown so that shock or failing to "fit in" could be observed. After all, sinners have never felt comfortable in their sinful actions around those who have principles and character. The sinner does not fit in, feel comfortable, in places with the purpose of decadence. Christianity is not difficult, just tough... choice making. God chose you before the foundation of the world and he expects you to make certain choices.

 

            Many of us were raised in churches of negativity. "We do not smoke, drink or chew. Do not chase girls who do." We were raised in churches of "checklist" redemption, may have read Charles Shelton's, "In His Steps," but in clothing, in language, in interests, we were not very different from those who never darkened a church house door. This writer was in church houses, not that much different from fraternal houses... "what you see or hear here, stays here." In many of the great cities of the world, indeed in my own city, cold-icy mornings, homeless people hovered at locked church house doors.

 

            The world has a great problem in separating morality from Christianity. Someone asked Burton Russell what excuse he would give when God asked him why he lived his life as an atheist, an "unbeliever." The famed philosopher said, "you did not give me enough evidence." The universe is filled with evidence, everything of beauty, everything of goodness, everything of truthfulness, straight from the heart and mind of God.

 

            It is the universal law that an object in motion will stay in motion until stopped by an external force. There is a big elephant sitting in the room while everyone talks about a small mouse. The great choice of Christianity, birthed twice, death once ( clinical death.) The greatest comfort of Christianity, we will have a longer time to spend with children and believers who died early, than unbelievers who lived long lives. God give us the grace, your mercy to spare to introduce choices to a lost and dying world intent on observing very insignificant things.

SWEAT and Labor Day

#1771

"Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun." Ecclesiastes (2:11)

        "Man plans, God laughs." There is not a maverick molecule in the universe. "God is boss." He is in charge of everything, every element, every virus, every act of nature, the fall of every bird, the drawer of every soul, "rebirthed" in Him.

        The most difficult thoughts of my long life, the "why's" of human existence... the un-evened field of life's battles. Every time I have considered my own sightless-ness, thought of the pain and the grief so many tender-innocent hearts have had to bare. (People not being able to understand what has happened to them.) The grief of death, afflictions of small children, the fact that the greatest cause of death on Earth is abortion. I can well understand why the agnostic trembles in an effort to understand.

        I have written many times about my boyhood life, the poverty of the farm. 80 years ago when I was a child, there were few conveniences to life. The 50 percent of the population who now spend their life in indolence... mostly living off the work of others... own "lazy boys" watching trash from a talking box, having nothing to do with the very creator of the universe on whom they must depend for their next breath. Despising the very government that gives them their "ease" of life... worshiping this idols of addiction, popularity, political correctness, self gratification, having no desire to know what our ancestors have gone through just to give us this nation. They have no desire to know about less fortunate areas of the world, where human beings spend their entire life just striving for food and water. This writer, world traveler (passport stamped in 157 countries,) eight round the world trips, traveler to every continent, has seen deprived villages, destitute children who have never known the joys of a sweet piece of candy.

        On our farm, where my father-grandfather before me had worked, There was one very large field, many acres. I still remember the feeling of desperation-depression-despondency , when, with a two mule plow, I would start the process of turning over the soil for a new planting year. Behind this two mule plow, you would turn the soil about ten inches at the time.... round and round that huge field. After the land was turned over, then it was "leveled-graded" by large mule drawn equipment so that rows for planting could be established. It was endless hard work, crops in season, year after year, to eek out our meager existence. This was before the time of mechanized equipment. My grand parents had a large tractor, large metal heels with spikes, but tractors were not used for cultivation. I will never forget the sweat of my father, my brothers, the tenant farmers, as we endured. BUT, we are not stuck where we started. Hard work, frugal living, industrious study at a small school house (thirteen in my graduating class.) Me, my brothers, my cousins, all left this existence. Through the hard work of our ancestors, we left the sweat of the farm for responsible professions, God given blessings and yet, perhaps our greatest blessing... removing the toxins of life from our bodies through sweating: and yet, learning the HONOR of hard work: and yet, committed-convinced-controlled by the creator of the universe who knew what he wanted for us before the world was formed.

        In thinking of this great field, and the many other lesser fields, where the same work was involved, such is life. It seems impossible looking toward the future, but one day at a time, we just "plow on" and so quickly, the seasons are over, the harvest is in and we are ready for new beginnings.

        Many of the days, that great sun rose on this boy plowing mules. Now, 85 years later, hard work, frugal living, conservative life, I can watch the sun rise over the ocean from my beach house. Our fellow man, generally speaking, resents-hates those who achieve. I can not understand people who do not enjoy their job. The highways are full of men and women rushing home from a day of work... accomplished, satisfied in well doing. I truly believe that happiness is going to bed at night, tired from a days work, but anxious to get up and do it all over again tomorrow. God help our people and our nation that has sunk into the bottomless pit of laziness-indolence. 

Basic Facts

#1768

The master deception of Satan! 

(Arthur Pink, "The Doctrine of Sanctification" 1937)

"I am the LORD your God. You must consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy." Leviticus 11:44 

We do greatly deceive ourselves, if we imagine that we are drawing nearer to Heaven--while only following those courses which lead to Hell. 

We are woefully deluded, if we suppose that we are journeying towards glory--and yet are living in sin. 

Christ died to procure holiness--not to secure an indulgence for sin. 

To live in known and allowed sin, and yet expect to be saved by Christ--is the master deception of Satan! 

My reader, a faith which does not transform character and reform conduct, is worthless. 

Saving faith is only proved to be genuine by bearing the blossoms of experimental godliness and the fruits of personal piety.

Great multitudes of ignorant people who live under the Gospel, harden their hearts in sin and ruin their souls forever, by trusting on Christ for such an 'imaginary salvation' as consists not at all in holiness--but only in forgiveness of sin and deliverance from everlasting torments. They would be free from the punishments due to sin--but they love their lusts so well that they hate holiness and do not desire to be saved from the service of sin. If they do not desire to be made holy and righteous in their hearts and lives--then they do not heartily desire true salvation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

          The shepherd smells like his sheep. He carries them on his shoulder. Drinks from the same spring from which they drink. There is a companionship between shepherd and sheep, they trust one another.

          One of the unanswered questions of my life, WHY those who claim to love god, put their redemption in the shed blood of his son, envy often imitate, those who despise God. I have associates, family members, neighbors, who say they are Christian, "Christ-like," and yet, in language, dress, habits, personal interests... can not be distinguished from those who are basically unbelievers-atheists. When you are in their company, they talk about the world, flesh, devil. THEY DO NOT WANT TO BE DIFFERENT. Those of us who love Gods word, love the Gospel, love Gospel music, have an aching hunger to associate-talk-visit with those who have a small knowledge of the holiness of God. We know that God has forgiven our sins, past, present and future. That we are in daily warfare against our flaws, but even the child recognizes hypocrisy.

          I shutter, even panic, when I think of the many times that I have failed my blessed Lord. This I know, from everything I have read in his word, from everything I have experienced in life... He has mercy to spare and although I have failed him, He will never fail me.  

Squirrel Cage

#1766

Like dogs in a wheel, birds in a cage, or squirrels in a chain, ambitious men still climb and climb, with great labor, and incessant anxiety, but never reach the top.

            The most important fact in this life, a sin in which I have been caught many times... knowing the gospel, knowing the forgiveness of God, I still get enslaved by the troubles and trials, problems encountered on each new day. Were slaves to sin, often try to keep Gods laws even though we have been given liberty from law. Abandoned freedom, returning to the law, abandon our freedom, lust of the flesh. We want relationships of law, rather than relationships of love.

            Christians of maturity, Christians of age, become dismayed  from the electronic media and even from the pul pit, by those who have exchanged their liberty through Christ, their freedom through redemption with entanglement by those who mix and confuse law and grace.

            I so remember my confusion-consignation as a young person studying the gospel. There were poorly educated preachers at the country church who had never been able to separate law and grace. There were older women in the church who would not build a fire in their cook stove on Sunday, very few would cook on the Lord's day. It was much as I experienced on my travels through Israel, the holy land, which according to Jewish law, observed at hotels, you ate cold food on the Sabbath... no maid service, orthodox Jews in their costumes walking everywhere.

            And then I was in Muslim countries (there are 42 Muslim countries in Africa) on a bus, the driver would get out of the bus and kneel in prayer on his prayer rug. Called to prayer from the mosque, men rushing to their place of worship... hand washing spigot outside the mosques.

            As this writers approaches the problems, aggravations, pains, trials, which are certain on every day of my life, I just pray that God will have an excess of mercy to see me through "it all." 

            "Through it all, through it all,
            I've learned to trust in Jesus,
            I've learned to trust in God;
            Through it all, through it all,
            I've learned to depend upon His Word."

            I have stated it from the pul pit, before many groups of veterans and I might as well state it here... "Sightless, wrought by pain, the victim of every aggravations and crime that employees can exact against me, knowing full well that most healthcare individuals and agencies are just going through the motions. IF NOT FOR MY FAITH WHO WOULD CONTINUE IN THIS LIFE? Do you actually blame any unbeliever for ending it all and knowing that God knows all, would he really hold suicide against the salvation of a believer?"

            And yet the two thieves on the cross of Calvary, who died with him, one on either side, never having experienced anything as far as grace... evidently, both were believers. One wanted belief on his own terms, like most modernists in the religiosity of today's world. "If thou be Christ, save thyself and us." (Luke 23:39) The other thief, humble, promised heaven that day, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." (Luke 23:42)

            As today's churches wither, most members depending on Christ to save his church and them, little humility by most of us to simply depend on grace. We get into the squirrel cage and just keep running, attempting to solve everything ourselves. It is too great an undertaking, it is truly remarkable that Jesus lived during the slavery and tyranny of Roman rule, perhaps the worst tyranny known to man. IF the saints who have gone on before us, IF my ancestors could survive through the horror story of their existence in the early years of this nation... SURELY I can bare up in this rat race, squirrel chase, anti-Christian, politically correct, broken culture in which God has chosen me to live.

            Our senses are besieged by sin that surrounds us. Our senses are bombarded by our fellow human beings. Lies are always used in direct proportion to their use. Almost, without exception, you evaluate the person-hood of EVERYONE with whom you come in contact. "How honest is this person, how far can I trust this person, what is this person attempting to get out of me?" This is not just the quandary of skepticism. Someone has said that a man is truly fortunate if he has enough friends to number on one hand. If he has two friends to whom he can go and borrow money without them asking any questions. As you age, you find that you have fewer and fewer friends... either outlived them or become so disappointed with them. Most do not want to indulge you, show any interest to your squirrel cage. Even our family members, our "so called" friends, neighbors, even those we pay to work for us, want nothing but a smooth road. Most of our friends are not concerned with the horror story of Planned Parenthood, GMO's in food, a nation mired in debt which it can never repay.

            Up until recent years, there was decency in all of us. We had rather work than take a hand out. My parents, ancestors, never thought about vacations/retirements. My grandfather was the last farmer to sign up for federal crop controls. My parents resented their parity check. "The doctrine of parity was used to justify agricultural price controls in the United States beginning in the 1920s-1930s." This writer was honored to work his way through eight years of university education. Now, every college student, regardless of the home from which they come, think that they must have a grant or surely a government subsidized loan AND from the bottomless ocean of knowledge and technology, has come several generations of Americans and even many in foreign countries who are tap dancing-running as hard as possible to keep up. Most are glancing at flowers they did not plant, certainly no time to smell a rose.

            I wish I had the ability to "re-gift" to my young grandsons and friends, the overwhelming desire of my youth for knowledge and success. We know that no man can come to Christ unless god "draws him." You could walk the isle of every Church, sign cards, but only the holy spirit of Christ re-birthing you will change you.

            In India, I saw water buffalo walking round and round, pumping water. The buffalo did not go anywhere except in a large circle. Only accomplished what the pole connected to him and mechanized pump desired. Water flowed because of the buffalo's work. In our lives, with all our activity, work, grief, we just may accomplish something, but life is for living. Jesus came to give us liberty, to set the captives free. This writer is in a cocoon of blackness, sightlessness, and I get exasperated with myself for letting the world, flesh, devil, re-enslave me. One who has spiritual freedom-liberty in Christ. 

Next, Christian Flag

#1753

There's a royal banner given for display

To the soldiers of the King;

As an ensign fair we lift it up today,

While as ransomed ones we sing.

Refrain:

Marching on, marching on,

For Christ count everything but loss!

And to crown Him King, we'll toil and sing,

'Neath the banner of the cross!

In the countryside were this writer was raised, hard work-hard times, just God fearing, working, tax paying believers. We did not have time to embellish our thoughts with the history that surrounded us. We knew that God was the designer of sacred geometry (everything in balance, sacred biology, life of every animal and plant precious in his sight and useful for man kind). Everything had a purpose, God makes no mistakes, there is no such thing as a rebel molecule. 

Most of the farm land was owned by relatives, and it had been handed down for many generations. I had often asked my parents about a certain area of dead, wild, bushes in the middle of a big field, which over the years, tenants of the land had just plowed around. An area probably about forty feet squared, over many years, many storms, trees once there, large bushes, just a big snake pit. 

Some years ago, a cousin who had inherited the land, decided to either find out what was there, in this discarded graveyard, or just return the area to a productive part of his land. When he began to cut- burn, he found that there were two remarkable tombstones in the area, tombstones of our ancestors, veterans of the Civil War. Two of my great-great-grandfathers sons, Nathan and James Morris, both of whom killed the same day during the Civil War. It was strange that these two were not buried with other family members in the family graveyard. 

It is quite possible, my ancestors were large land owners, they could have afforded to have the bodies brought from Virginia were they were killed. It is also possible, since my ancestry dating from first landing and founding of Morris town NJ in 1677, were not active in the Confederacy. Perhaps this is the reason that the family church, then (1874) and until this day, is known as the "Union Grove Church," and effort at reconciliation. It is quite possible that these two sons, more than other family members, were sympathizers of the southern cause (some historians have called the North-South conflict a matter of slavery, others a matter of taxation). whatever the cause, these two sons chose to fight with the Confederacy, and died as confederate soldiers. 

I am surmising that their loving, grieving family, chose to bury them separate from other family and neighbors, for some unknown reason, we will never know. Young men of the South, fought and died for what they believed. Just as for some unknown reason young men of different factions of the same religion (Islam) fought and died in Iraq, and Afghanistan. One of the bloodiest conflicts of the 20th century, involved Iran and Iraq, Muslims killing Muslims. We do not know what type of flag they fought under. 

The flag of the Confederacy, seems to be more a matter of concealed altruism, in more modern simplistic minds, who just want to be rebels. 

Rebels have never conquered anyone at anytime. There must be more to idealism than rebellion.

Do we really think removing any physical-outward symbol, cleanses any thought?

Stinking thinking, is still stinking thinking. 

If the presentation- Parading of the stars and stripes, the American flag, does not stir your mind, then their is something very wrong 14 inches away at your heart. 

The thing that bothers me most about the removal of the Confederate flag, and whatever it symbolizes to some people, is just how long it will take for the same "book burners" to remove the Christian flag from Christian churches and Christian sinners around the world. 

We believe there are about 300,000 Christian churches in America today... Some great mega edifices, some just store front places to worship. Some churches are very evangelical, some very modernistic... Just country clubs with steeples. Almost all Christian churches, because we uphold the liberty of our patriotic, as well as our Christian liberty, have somewhere in the building, usually at the front, both a Christian and American flag. Many of my Christian friends, who did not wear the military uniform, have their casket covered with a Christian flag when they die.

How long will it be until these same élites who want to control everything, according to their own bias thinking, want the Christian thinking removed from Americana. 

Then, how long will it be before these Elites, who usually have no political or religious loyalty, will want "old glory" removed from the American public square, and anywhere else that it might offend them. 

The road to Hell is paved with empty religions, just formalities and rituals. You can get the same in a civic, or fraternal group. 

Christianity is supernatural, when a Christian, in a supernatural way, you become a new creation. This is the problem with the present day church, present day believers, who pretend to be Christians. Most have never had a supernatural experience. 

When you have a supernatural experience, the Holy Spirit of God (Birthed in your heart), the Christian flag means much to you. 

For those who have known the thrill of the stars and stripes, even on an embassy in a foreign country, or on an American ship in a foreign port, there too, is a supernatural thrill.

Perhaps Nathan and James Morris in that forgotten graveyard, knew loyalty to the Confederate flag. At least, they are buried in the land and near the family the loved. 

Court Room Proof

Prove it!

"In thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."

Psalm 16:11

Dr Morris's Favorite Verse off Scripture

(J.R. Miller, "The Glory of the Commonplace")

It is related that the famous French artist Gustave Dore was once wandering in the mountains of Switzerland, when some officials met him and demanded his passport. "I do not have it with me," he replied, "but my name is Gustave Dore." "Prove it, if you are," replied the officers, knowing who Dore was--but not believing that this was he. Taking a piece of paper, the artist hastily sketched a group of peasants who were standing near, and did it with such grace and skill that the officials exclaimed, "Enough, you are Dore!"

In the same way, the world cares little for a mere profession. We say we are Christians, and the challenge is, "Prove it!" If we are of Christ, then we must do the works of Christ, live the life of Christ, and show the spirit of Christ. The artist's skillful drawing proved his identity. Just so, we must prove that we are the followers of our Master by the love, the grace, the beauty, the holiness of our life.

Religion is not merely a matter of creed and profession, or of church-going and public worship; it is far more a matter of daily life. It is not how we behave on Sundays, nor the kind of creed we hold, nor the devoutness of our worship--it is the way we act at home, in school, in business, in society, in our associations with others. It is vitally important that all who profess Christ--shall manifest Christ's beauty in their life and character. It is not enough to preach the gospel in words alone; others must also read it in our daily life. "So that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders." 1 Thessalonians 4:12 

"Whoever says he abides in Christ, ought to walk and conduct himself in the same way in which He walked and conducted Himself." 1 John 2:6 

The favorite author of Dr. T.R Morris, is John Grisham, Oxford Mississippi. Grisham is one of the nations most prolific writers, a master of the legal thriller. Totally blind, Dr. Morris uses a reading machine. His favorite books are legal thrillers

In speaking, many places, many pulpits, Morris often asked the question, "If you were accused of being a Christian, would a capable-experienced lawyer be able to prove it?" Unbelievers have often asked Dr. Morris if he could prove the existence of god. There are two matters with which the Atheist cannot become satisfied in their un-belief. One is the fact that all human beings have a conscious. To know, at least to some degree, the difference between good and evil-right and wrong.

           

The other mystery to the unbeliever, that god is care taker of the planets. Like shells on the sea-shore we are discovering one galaxy after another. The Hubble telescope was put into outer-space in 1990, it has been repaired five times since. Each time, its reach into has been expanded... A further and further range, great dark spaces with stars. The universe not expanding, but the ability of the telescope to see further. From nothingness, to somethingness, the creator of this universes has every star named

"He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name." Psalm 147:4

Would the most radical evolutionist, the most stalwart unbeliever doubt this? If only those of us to claim the name of Christ could have such proof-positive identity.

Like the women crawling just to touch the hem of gods garment we need the holiness of god. For she was saying to herself, "If I only touch his Garment I will get well." Matthew 9:21

If only the Christian could realize the power of the creator, the fact that he always meets us at our need.

           

The scientist, the Christian, is not desperate to know the vastness-distances of the galaxies of the universe. But he does need to know his relationship with god. Those around him need to realize his relationship with god. It is the hypocrisy of Christians that keep more of their fellow man from god than their lives lead to god. If the un-believer saw within the life of the believer, a truth-trust so attractive that they would want the same thing, the world would have already been won to Christ.

I am so glad that I sat on those hard wood benches in that old country church built by my ancestors when I was a child. I am so glad that as a boy on the farm, nothing but hard work and hard times, in the good Earth, and from the rain clouds, I learned the proof of gods existence. The professors at the University were not able to wash this proof from my convictions. 

#1723