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.  

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.  

Tattoos, Piercings and Graffiti

#1764

"Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges."

-Herman Melville

            The worst way to start your day is like the rest of the world with a mind set, "And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful." (Mark 4:19) Over the trenches of political correctness Satanic developments there are still normal people. Satan always betrays his partners in crime. In a post modernist world of broken cultures those of us with more or less conventional attitudes find it extremely difficult to understand why some of our fellow human beings delight in violating-challenging the beauty of Jehovah god, creator of the universe. The word spoke and nothingness became something-ness.  The word spoke and everything in the world filled with beauty which the mind of man can only comprehend, never counterfeit the 110 elements of the earth, the 12 music tones of the earth, laws of nature, colors, everything in absolute symmetry and proportion. The mind of man is unable to comprehend the holiness of God. His ability to capture beauty.

            This world traveler has experienced/sensed (those sightless) the beauty of nature, as God developed it on every continent of the world.  We understand why god observed and saw that it was good (Genesis:1:24.) Nothing is uglier than finding God's handiwork defaced. Nothing is uglier than finding graffiti on a work of art, ugly symbols on a magical, balanced, work of symmetry. I remember so well the first time I was in the great opening in Petra, that great city of stone with its magnificent columns. Some jerk had actually defaced one column with graffiti. 

            Of course there are accidents of nature, the weirdos, circus people who display their deformities. There have always been those that have slowed down to watch a car crash. Who get a thrill from human beings battering one another in the boxing ring or the ancient gladiator arenas. I will admit that I have been to a bull fight both in Spain and South America. Ancient sports, people got a thrill from seeing lions tear apart Christians. Today sports people enjoy seeing millionaires abuse one another as they fight over a ball.  As the cruelest inhuman activity, warfare, has "progressed" from the closeness of the sword and bayonet into the inhuman activity of planes and drones dropping bombs from a huge distance, "the caretaker" of the planets must have revulsion with the decadence of his chief creation, Mankind.

            There has always been a fascination with the abnormal. I remember, so well, as a child, a farmer in the community had a cow who gave birth to a three legged calf. People wanted to go by and see this abnormal calf. The farmer started to charge to look at the calf. Warts, deformities, were never "beauty spots."  A polite society learned to ignore them. People invested in beauty appreciating great works of art wanted the comfort of manicured lawns, sculptures in parks, colors on buildings, the beauty of flowers which no horticulturist has ever been able to reproduce. Just in America billions of dollars are spent each year on supplements which we believe compliment our diets, give us better health. Our greatest national expense is healthcare. We do everything possible to live better and longer.  Every parent wants his child to be perfect.  Billions of dollars are spent on designer clothing.  Special education, America is besieged by universities that would make the ancient philosophers blush.  Why then, please tell me, where the thrill came from which has caused so many young intelligent people to deface/abuse themselves with tattoos, piercings. Those of us who are old wish we had the skin and musculature of the young. Why would any parent allow a child on whom they have spent a life preparing for the future to subject that body to the criminal stupidity of introduction of pathological disease through tattoos, skin scars, or piercings in other areas of the body. There is nothing more dangerous to the human body than making disease entrance easier. We know the problems just from artificial knee or hip replacements. We know the problems of the pacemaker/stints or other artificial means of prolonging life. Why then would anyone take the risk of decorating/desecrating the body with nonsense and in the case of a girl, a "tramp stamp?"

            This old blind veteran, sightless for many years is mostly home bound. But, I am told many people in church are tattooed/pierced. Who do they think they are fooling?  Satan has always been able to mark his followers...language, clothing and habits. Just as the western rancher branded his livestock with a tattoo/brand. So Satan clearly has his crowd "branded" with tattoos. Every human being, the world over, has an empty place in his heart for some thing or some one in which the person them self cannot fill.  There are religions/cults/traditions around the world seeking to fill that emptiness. The road to hell is paved with religion. It should not be strange that many "seekers" will find their way to the church pew.  But, as the Apostle Peter found, there is a difference in religion and relationship. Peter walked and talked with God as Jesus' feet caressed the land around the Sea of Galoli. Peter, the man who denied his precious lord, who actually walked on water. Who when he was crucified insisted on being crucified upside down, learned forgiveness. There are too many unrepentant-unrestricted church members who do not have an intimate relationship with God.  Christianity is not complicated, just tough. We must be tough, stand, never turn your back to Satan. With all the sincerity and humbleness of my heart, never yield to Satan's temptation of marking our body for him. He knows who "owns" us.  When Christ redeems us, we are a new creation in Him, ready to be seen and read of men (1 Corinthians 3:1-3.) I like to wear a cross on my jacket. I like for my fellow man to know whose side I am on.

"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." - 1 Corinthians 10:31 

Scuttlebutt

#1761

"Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people." - Henry Thomas Buckle

            Apparently, no one can be shocked anymore by anything. Our senses are bombarded everyday by things that the science fiction writer of my youth, could never have dreamed. From the talking head newscaster, politician, pastor, everyone talks "slivers" of solution... just chasing one thing until another comes up.

            This writer is always listening, everyone's talking... no secrets anymore. I am told that every living/breathing person, from the school child to the grandmother, either has a telephone in front of their face or they are looking down talking on their phone with their fingers (texting.) I have personally let several female employees go because they had their eyes and mind focused on a telephone rather than the dictation I was giving them for the computer. I went through eight years of university training, the most difficult courses of study in the world, working jobs at night so I could go to classes during the day. Never once during those eight years did I ever have a telephone call from home. I don't believe many students did at that time in our countries history. We knew the real joy of the mail man, "letters from home." During all my years of military service, there were very few telephone calls. The phone was for emergency-business, not visiting. One of my friends told me that his daughter, age 8, wanted a cell phone. I said, "You tell her that I was reared in a time where there was only one telephone for many miles." My cousin had a telephone at his country store. Everyone for miles used that telephone to call the doctor, the funeral home or to get an emergency message from somewhere.

            Scuttlebutt, where the happy hour at the pool haul, the golf links at the country club, women's mission circle at your church, was, is and will always be just scuttlebutt... talking-visiting. Human beings are the same, the world over, very social animals. This writer has traveled every continent, whether the desolate areas of India, crowded streets in Egypt, people talking-gesturing and body language. I was never one to waste my valuable time in idle conversation. I was always, perhaps, too brutally sharp on the phone. Professional people do not have time for the leisure of idle conversation. I can tell very quickly, the future of any professional man by his attitude on the telephone... friendly, fair, fast. I am told that every billionaire gets there because he is fast with a decision.

            There is two things that bother me the most about people engaged in idle conversation. If a person is sick enough to be in a hospital, the patient does not need visitors. People coming in, spreading their germs, talking and bothering a tired patient with unnecessary narrative.

            The other, a place of worship. The church house, the inter court is not a place for conversation. The worst, the Baptist. Their visiting-conversations should take place in the outer-court, the churchyard. I still like the denominations that have kneeling benches. You come into the sanctuary and get immediately and completely in the mode of worship. I often listen to the local Baptist church on the morning radio. Often, there is a interlude between the radio and the church house. The noise from the sanctuary is anything but worship. Talking, laughing, one is a place of worship... to honor god.  All attention to Christ, the cross. So many churches no longer have a cross and the Christian service is no different than that of a civic club, the same noise of a sports arena.

            I was on the staff of the Army hospital, fort McClellan, Alabama. A long desire of my life has been to worship at the Baptist tabernacle, peach tree St. Atlanta, Georgia. I drove the long distance one weekend to attend the service. The great tabernacle was everything I expected, the great choir singing without any hymn books. The great organ, grand piano, great preacher, the thing that ruined in all... before and after, the noise of the people come to worship. I do not know how or why this silly matter of running around shaking everyone's hands during the worship service. We are in the church to honor Christ, not to compliment one another.

           

            The history of the world started with conversation. From nothingness to something-ness, God spoke and the world was formed. God spoke and man was formed and the other animals, all life with its ability to participate.

            In other articles, I have described much of my world travel, many around the world trips... every continent... both the north and south pole. I want to bring two places to your attention, The Great Barrier Reef, near Australia. a 1300 mile coral reef made up of bodies of articulating animals. We are told that all around this great miracle of nature, marine animal life, can be heard to the educated ear. Like the great humpback whales, all marine life has a language and of course this is true with bird life near the great reef, rain island (known for its birds, their noises.) I was in the Indian ocean, bird island, another sanctuary. The place was alive with their communication skills. Life would be tragic indeed if not for the SHARING of tone sounds (music) whether in the great opera halls or in cheap radio. It is the universal language of mankind. The letters may be different on the type writer, in different countries, but the notes are always the same anywhere on a musical instrument.

            Talk radio has revolutionized the world of communication during the past 20 years. It is now an established fact that more people enjoy the different sounds-cadences of the human voice of people talking, than ever enjoyed music. The success of a talk show, radio-TV-platform, is completely dependent on a variety of speakers. Words mean something, words have a way of changing the mind, changing the world. 

Problems & Solutions

#1760

"Open my eyes, that I may see. Glimpses of truth, thou hast for me."

Scatty, cold breath of mentality on the neck. We often project solutions before we understand the problem. Boundaries of all problems have solutions built on eternal values, values already established in Gods answer book, God's word, the holy Bible. One-third of early Americans landing on American soil died from Malaria. They did not know how to handle this disease caused by a small mosquito, Plasmodium Vivax. It is of historical note that most European missionaries seeking to bring Africa to the cross, died from malaria. Many died before they got off the ship, in which they were traveling from Europe to Africa... such a dreadful all consuming disease. Yet, twenty-first century, with a bottomless ocean of technology and chemicals (treatment and cures,) thousands of Africans still die every year from Malaria... when mosquito netting is so cheap, when pesticides are so available. After all, we are not living in a century when 50,000 in London died of the bubonic plague, simply because they didn't know how to handle the fleas on rats. After all, we are not living in a century such as the American Civil War, when 50% of all wounded soldiers died, simply because the doctors did not have sense enough to wash their hands. The greatest cause of disease distribution in the world, civilized or not, are the valuable instruments we find at the ends of our arms... hands with fingers. Hands which hold the dirtiest, germ infested,  much loved, fiat paper money, are holding next, food, which you are putting in your mouth and shaking hands with someone whose hands have been god knows where. We as mortal-mental human beings given by god the brain wiring to think and make decisions, do not have sense enough to control our hands, to wash and keep them clean, as germ free as possible. Microscopic hitch-hikers get into the bloodstream so easily. We have two thousand miles of blood vessels, nourishing every tissue, including the largest organ of the body... the skin. Those of us who study the human body, if we have enough intelligence to do so, marvel that any of us survive. Our institutions of biological sciences have become ivy towered cathedrals of gastrulating manipulation, a wonderland of investigation. Just enough human integrity to pick the pockets of endowment funds, foundations, government grants. Most medical scientists can not get their heads out of the clouds, of complex knowledge, to bring themselves and their patients to a level of common knowledge. When was the last time your doctor asked you about what you eat? The two things that determine health are nutrition and exercise. When was the last time your doctor actually touched you? Most of today's young health professionals can only use their fingers on a computer keyboard... without laboratory studies of your body, they know nothing. This writer has learned, personally, that going to a physicians assistant (PA) you get a better examination and concerned treatment, than you do from "the robber" in the white coat. Most old cemeteries are filled with graves of those who inherited European diseases. The true epidemics of yellow fever, influenza (the early 20th century,) erased entire families and communities from the earth. I'm old enough to remember my grandmothers description of the flu epidemic of 1918. When a family member would start coughing, others in the community still able to work, would start building a coffin. From the old sawmills, used to saw the lumber, for the building of homes and barns (put together with wood pegs.) Wide boards would be "seasoned" to use as coffins. This is what our ancestors endured to build this great nation, which atheists-liberal idea logs are so easily destroying. My progressive friends promote the idea of destroying America because of bad treatment to native Americans. They build hospitals for turtles, rehabilitation for birds, but do not even whimper at the destruction of millions of human babies. Then, to further verify their deity antagonism, they talk of the slaughter of the old testament. The seven civilizations in the "promised land," when the Jews crossed over the Jordan River on dry land, were pagan, sacrificing their own babies in fire to their pagan gods. Have things really changed? Would an aborted baby rather have life sucked from him, or quick immolation. Life and love are essential to healing. God is a great physician, "for I am the Lord who healeth thee..." (Exodus 15:26)

            The Christian should be so ready at the Lords table, to take bread for healing, wine for forgiving. Jews do not read Isaiah 53, it is a precious message for the Christian, written 700 years before the birth of Christ. If god does not choose to heal, "and by his stripes we were healed," (1 Peter 2:24) healed now or later, "Jesus paid it all." In my youth, everything was prosthetic, now I'm living in it. Many times I viewed the "awful" instruments used in surgery and obstetrics, on display in the medical library in chapel hill. It was hard for me to conceive the mental trauma involved, both from the doctor and patient. Yet, with all the advances in knowledge, seeking solutions, have we lost sight of the problem. There are still as many warriors killed from disease as are killed in battle, more soldiers die from suicide then die in battle. More young people die in car crashes and from "exciting" designer drugs, than live to make a better world for everyone. Knowing the value of life, knowing today's opportunities, why do young people seek destruction? If only this writer, from poverty-very poor preparation for anything, could have had a college grant, computer, good diet, maybe I could have made something of myself. No, it is not what we can do with self, as the great prince of preachers Spurgeon said, "anything that makes a man get down on his knees to god, is gain to him." There are those who live in virtual worlds, but we live in a very real world. Jesus, God-man, put on a tent of human flesh and dwelled among us... send us. "If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" (John 3:12-17)

            In the countless years of my life, as I look at the political and spiritual condition of the world, man has been more interested in the politicians platform than the pastoral pool pit. More interested in what God can do for him, than what he can do for God. We, mortal men, want God in our image instead of our being in the image of God. Now, does the solution to the problem become more evident. We have tried to put the plow before the horse, solution before realizing the problem... same problem, same solution for thousands of years. 

New Tribalism

#1758

"What I believe about God is the most important thing to me.- A.W Tozer

             

Smart intelligent people are just as sinful as the less intelligent, less attractive people. They just hide it better. Dr. Benjamin Franklin said, "in the blackness of night all cats look grey." It is a known fact of sociology, biology, and theology that the men

tal ability of God's chief creation, mankind, is limited. People are not as smart as they think they are. Usually seeks their own levels-standards-limits. We like to be fooled, like to think that things will "work out." For instance, there was a war on poverty... now we have more poverty. There was a war on drugs... now we have more drugs. We are engaged on a war on terrorism and have had nothing but increased terrorism. Ever since this writer was old enough to pay any attention to political advertisements, "why Johnny cant read." Increased billions every year to spend on public schools, yet more and more parents home school their children. An attempt to escape the war against education. An education system intent on entertaining, indoctrinating. instilling liberalism... rather than the fundamentals of learning.

            My Grandparents never saw a movie. The first movie most of us saw (poverty stricken, tobacco farmlands of Eastern North Carolina) were movies shown at night, outside on the side of a large store building. Early movies were westerns-shoot them ups. Many had jail scenes, some females attempting to smuggle into the jail a saw blade to her boyfriend. All these years later, oceans of technology, latest "jail break"  New York state, saw blade smuggled in (frozen meat.)

            Separation of human beings via skin color, interest, religious traditions, has always been as normal  and as natural in human beings as was the various tribes found in America  when our ancestors arrived here. Paleontologists have written about the various native American tribal customs-food-methods of warfare. Indians, Onuwii (Eskimos,) just as did the Jewish tribes in early bible history. Enjoyed their owned traditions-customs-heritage. In America, farm life moved to urban centers, city clubs, social clubs religious denominations were formed because some people, some families, from DNA or just sheer luck preferred the association and company of one another. To see these people on the streets, you would not recognize their differences, but a Pentecostal group is totally different from a Episcopalian service. Men lined up for a physical examination at a military hospital, hair shorn, perhaps the same type of underwear, can not be distinguished... the Dr's son from the janitors son, but putting on the accomplishments of stores-education and there is a tremendous difference on the golf links.

            Mr. LBJ, reverend Jackson, Mr. Obama and his elk, would have complete integration the justice" of same sex marriage, elimination of clonkers. Miracle of midnight basketball, "don't ask don't tell," and all will be as wonderful as Nicola linen or Joseph Stalin or the Mao Zedong. Mao killed 80million  Chinese trying to accomplish this. Stalin killed 40 million Russians, great society. Yet after all this murder-mayhem-welfare malarkey and I have spent much time in both places, the people, socialists comrades, still separate themselves. Gods computer did not install the right programs for human equality. There has always been inequality. Sheep and goats, fare sees and sinners, pagans and puritans, it is as simple as those who observe happy hour at a beer joint on a backstreet of my old town. Or happy hour at a plush country club in the excesses of my town or happy hour at the golf course, compared to happy hour at a local pool hall.

            The progressives, socialists, liberals of our time, usually calling themselves democrats... will not be happy UNTIL Americans are all part of a giant prison system. Prisoners to a government subsidized house. Prisoner to a green government welfare check. Prisoners too absolute control from "big brother and big government."  This writer has been to China 3 times since it has re-opened after the Nixon visit. My first visit to communist China in 1976, everyone in the same costume... men and women. The same haircuts, men and women. Everyone mostly on bicycles, men and women. Four families shared an apartment, different shelves for the different families. All the parents were at work, children in government facilities (children palaces.) All young men were in the military and you could see them doing their calisthenics. On my morning walks, the populations, out of bed ready for work... eating rice with their chopsticks out of a large pot out in the middle of their housing developments. When you, my fellow Americans, look at your home owner associations, meals on wheels, plastic welfare cards at the grocery store. Licenses and permits necessary for money to do anything. You will realize just how rapidly the land of the free and home of the brave are moving toward commune copulation, controlled actions.

            When you see like minded-similarly dressed, similar speech individuals enjoying one another's company whether in a "beer joint", fast food emporium, cheap walk-up ball game, or even enjoying praising god in a store front "house of worship." Be glad that tribalism with all its mysterious attractions, its magical joyfulness still exists in the real spirit of Americano. When people lose the right to freely associate, families lose to right for a reunion, schoolyards no longer have patches of laughter. We have lost it all.

            We live in a world of warrior-ism. On Facebook pages the rich-pour learned-unlearned enjoy the well worn act of sharing one another. From the beginning, mankind has been a sociable animal. Mankind is the only animal that can blush, that can laugh. Man is the only animal that knows he is going to die. The grace of god has given us freedom. The senses are truly remarkable when in use. As we age, we lose our eyesight, our hearing, often our sense of touch. God left us lastly to lose our sense of smell and taste. "Taste and see that the lord is good." (Psalm 34:8) Plant flowers that you will not pick or smell, just know that your marvelous contribution in life is the members of your personality that you leave behind to those who wanted to be in your group. 

Different

#1756

²⁶ For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

²⁷ But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

²⁸ And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

²⁹ That no flesh should glory in his presence.

³⁰ But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

³¹ That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. (1 Corinthians Chapter 1)

Today's Puritan Audio Devotional:

Thomas Watson's choice excerpts on Scripture
Play Audio! Download Audio

   ~  ~  ~  ~

We soon grow dull, cold, lifeless, and inactive!

(James Smith, "The Great Comforter" 1858)

"It is the Spirit who quickens; the flesh profits nothing." John 6:63

All real religion begins with the quickening of the Spirit. When we experience this . . .
  we begin to breathe after spiritual things; 
  we open our eyes in a new world; 
  we hunger and thirst after righteousness; 
  and at length taste that the Lord is gracious. 
We then have . . .
  new thoughts, 
  new desires, 
  new hopes, 
  new fears, 
  new joys, and 
  new sorrows. 
The eye fixes on Christ, 
the heart goes out to Christ, and 
the chief desire of the soul is to be like Christ. 

The Spirit not only quickens us at first--but all through life we need and are dependent on the Spirit's quickening. He quickens us to pray, and He quickens us in prayer. It is His quickening which puts . . .
  life into our graces,
  energy into our prayers,
  confidence into our expectations, and
  enables us to resist Satan, steadfast in the faith.

If His quickening power is withheld--we soon grow dull, cold, lifeless, and inactive! We have . . .
  no power in prayer,
  no enjoyment in ordinances,
  no liberty in speaking to the saints,
  nor profit in reading God's Word. 
Every duty becomes a task, 
every privilege becomes a burden, and 
every cross appears insupportable!

While under the quickening operation of the Spirit--we can do all things; but without His quickening--we can do nothing. 

Often, very often, have we to cry out from bitter experience, "My soul cleaves unto the dust; quicken me according unto Your Word!" Psalm 119:25

Quickening Spirit, daily quicken my soul!

   ~  ~  ~  ~

We have published J.R. Miller's helpful short article, "The Cure for Weariness".

   ~  ~  ~  ~

Feel free to forward these gems to others who may be encouraged or profited by them!

Dr. Morris-

      This writer, like most people I have encountered inside the church house, caught in the same satanic trap- snare- plight of not wanting to be "different" from those outside the church house. Our lives have been tainted by the need for acceptance of Satan's crowd... Our dress- language- idols. We had rather be popular- proud- peculiar, than show the born again righteousness of Christ which should be shown in any person who has experienced true repentance, lost that old life of sin and indifference. God inhabits the praise of his people (Psalm 22:3).

      Real Christians, different people, care little about the "acceptance" of an unsaved world. Every minute of every day, I want acceptance of a holy God. We find this in prayer. It is a lifelong learning experience that, when you have notoriety, education accomplishment, success in business, houses and lands, even family and friends, you have what THEY can do. But, when you have a daily minute by minute experience with the holiness of God through prayer, than you have what God can do.

      Look around, look at the news, look at what is happening to our world, WE NEED, WHAT GOD CAN DO.