Testing

One of my favorite radio programs as a teenager was the Great Gildersleeve with it's main actor Hal Perry. The Great Gildersleeve was running for mayor of his town and he discovered, as most challengers of incumbents have discovered, the power of incumbency. What it means for a politician to be thoroughly established in office with the corruption inherent, political appointments, the good ol' boy network, and the actual belief that the government treasury and taxpayer funds actually belong to him, and he can use these funds to do whatever he wants, usually payoffs that will ensure his reelection. We are seeing this on a scale now that has never before been seen in history.

It is bad enough to see the downtrodden taxpayer cough up every tax, every permit, every license, every fine one can imagine in local, state and federal governments; but now, four billion hard earned dollars must be extracted to support world government. Mr. Gore and his cohorts already set up in their tax and trade scam.

It should be an embarrassment to every American citizen as it is an insult to every American military veteran, to witness the bribery and extortion going on by the Democrat party in Washington. In the wee hours of the morning, behind closed doors, the power brokers, and elected representatives, make the mafia look decent as they pay off senators such as Landrew, Nelson, and others for their vote. Following the Obama-Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, a scourge of decadence, our government has been taken over by the radical element and our Constitution trashed. This is a time for the testing of the American spirit as never before in our 230-year history. WHAT WE DO, DETERMINES WHAT WE ARE. If you are a Marxist-Criminal, it will come out in your actions. If you are an honorable person of integrity, your basic character and actions will show it. Character determines destiny. If you are a person of character, it will be evident in your actions as well as words. The Christian patriot will always show integrity. God will not ask you to do something you cannot do. We do what we do because we believe what we believe.

As I have stated many times, most of my life as a totally blind person involves radios. Listening to several radios at a time and in this day of “talk radio”, becoming well-known across the nation in sharing my thoughts with others.

Locally, on a talk-station, a black woman called in expressing her frustrations because she had been in bed ill for a long time and could not get the ever promising government agencies, or any “do-gooder” civic or church group to come to her assistance. It was evident from what she said her family was financially unable to assist. In the course of the conversation, she said, “I used to depend on God, but I have found that He is a white man's God. God does not seem to be interested in a 70-year old black woman who cannot pay her water bill or prepare something to eat.” I called the host of the show afterwards and told the host to come by my house to pick up some money for Mrs. Johnson, and to have her call me. I remember the name because it is the same name as Kathryn Johnston in Atlanta who also lived in a drug infested part of town. You remember, from the news accounts, that Mrs. Johnson was a 92-year old black woman living alone in her own home, the Atlanta police acting on an erroneous tip, kicked in her door, and she---frightened from the drug activity all around her---fired a shot at her front door hitting a police officer.

The police had a no-knock warrant and cut down her burglar bars to gain entrance. Wherein, the police who had kicked down the door, they shot 39 times, with 5 bullets hitting and killing her. I've talked with Mrs. Johnson, who lived on Castle St., several times by phone. It depressed me that she was going through this time of testing. A time when she was doubting the veracity of God, the promises of His care. I told her, “I am older than you, totally blind, mostly housebound, it has taken me an entire lifetime to have the courage of faith and depend on the sovereignty of God.” Faith is like a two-sided coin, a coin is worthless without both sides. Faith is action based on belief, sustained by confidence. You must have both belief and action in your faith, survival through courage.

For 120-years, the preacher of righteousness Noah, showed action in his belief in God's salvation through the construction of an Arc. Abraham, the first Jew, showed for time and eternity, action and belief as he traveled 600 miles north at God's direction, no forwarding address, and was willing to wait for a very old wife to produce a son (who as a young man, he readily offered as a sacrifice). In these two examples, as well as many others throughout history, we find that many times it is more difficult to wait than to work but we are told to “wait upon the Lord” (Psalm 37:9).

Our sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient, God of the universe, has told us that he would never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). God just requires us to trust in Him. Many times, and in many ways, we find that God does not have a calendar nor a wristwatch. I believe that 95% of faith is just raw courage. The courage and confidence of believing that the testing of God applies just as much now as it did with the ancients.

I shared with Mrs. Johnson, the small slave church in the woods right across the road from my cousin's house where the slaves 200-years ago would gather for worship. I told her about the crude benches in the building. The incredible life which they as well as most of us have endured, but the importance of enduring to the end (Matthew 24:13).

It would be wonderful if just through prayer and asking, things would happen instantly such as the instant healing in a Benny Hinn healing crusade. God works in mysterious ways and just as civil rights, healing often takes time, HE IS BOSS.

Mrs. Johnson, like this writer, had been reared on a farm. I reminded her that only farm people can actually know God's plan for everything... The time involved in germination for seeds in the ground... The time involved for hatching eggs under the hen... The time involved for the curing of meat or wood... The faith involved in having crops exposed to the elements (rain, hail, wind storms).

I don't know how much good I did in her life, or anyone's life. I just know we are asked to do the best we can. We plant the seeds, someone else waters the plant, and it is up to God for the results. Satan is the enemy, always on the job. The spirit of God is always present, like the wind, you never can tell which way it will go. God's ways are NOT man's ways (Isaiah 55:9). Take assurance from testing, For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth (Hebrews 12:6).