Painting by the Number

I heard blind Dr. Helen Robinson of the University of Chicago say one time, “I wish I could see well enough just to walk from one room to another without walking into things.” Only a fellow blind person can understand this. God left me with a shadow of vision in one eye for many years, which enabled me to maneuver through airports and get around without walking into things. This was about 40 years ago, since then, it has been a world of blackness. I remember, when I could still see, visiting the world's great art museums, the Louvre in Paris, El Prado in Madrid, etc. When you look at the great works of art, those that sell for millions of dollars, analyzing brush strokes with a magnifier, you can hardly imagine one with the patience, talent, tenacity to give such majesty even to the smallest leaf. Later, someone gave me a painting for my office, painted by number, there is a tremendous difference. So it is with life and death.

It bothers me that some take life so casually, by the number, while others, every minute, every second is a challenge. I believe those that wear the “Roman collar” are not subjected to the same plateaus of indifference as the rest of us. As my father would say, “the preacher came riding up to the church in a nice car, well dressed, associating with the best people in the area, while on Sunday morning, about the time he got his Sunday shoes on, a cow jumped the fence, or hog rooted under a fence, and he had to get outside and get the animal back in. The preacher got paid whether the crops drowned or dried up. Everywhere the preacher went, people were on their best behavior, put the best flatware on the table, tastiest food on the platter.”

Every time I visited the Vatican, I was humbled by Catholics who were there for the first time, the tears that came so quickly. They didn't mind seeing all that opulence, gold, paintings, wealth beyond compare. Why would any member of the Catholic hierarchy want to die and go to heaven? In some of the poorest cities of the world, I always visited the cathedral, I would peek around some of the locked gates, and there were always limousines in the parking lot. Wealth inside the fenced grounds, absolute poverty among the people, young ragged Catholics begging from the tourists.

On July 18th, from his summer palace, Castel Gondolfo, Pope Benedict XVI spoke on essentials of life, he said, “[we must] rest from our daily labors so that we may give time to the one thing that is truly necessary in our lives -listening to the word of God in attentive stillness. God is that 'inner light of love and truth' that gives every action meaning, value, and joy.”

It is easy for a man to speak of joy who eats from golden utensils off of golden plates, the best food which high-paid chefs can prepare, unchallenged by the risk, deceits, decadence of world, who has people bowing to him all day long, kissing his ring, and a billion people in absolute servitude. Can you imagine Christ living in such splendor here on this earth? Christ, God incarnate, born in a borrowed stable, buried in a borrowed tomb.

I found Francis Thompson's grave site in London, this wonderful British poet wrote, “Love is a many splendored thing.” God is love, and Christ told us that he is truth. (John 17:17, John 14:6)

Our blessed Lord never owned a house, a bed, more than one pair of shoes, yet the cattle on a thousand hills were his (Psalm 50:10). All the gold, all the silver, every element in the earth, all made by Him (John 1). Is it not wonderful to know that we are His “workmanship” (Ephesians 2:10)? How we short change ourselves by loving the things of this world (1 John 2:15). Satan wants those who bear the name of Christ to love the world, and the things that are in the world. When you put your idols of technology, luxury living, self-aggrandizement, even insulated opulence of the church ahead of Him, God is jealous. Because He tells us that He is a jealous God (Exodus 34:14, Exodus 20:5).

The Rockefellers (Baptists), owners of Standard Oil, got rich selling oil for 10 cents a barrel. They built the great Riverside Church in New York, and have done much good, but that good will never erase the harm of “planned parenthood”, which they founded and financed.

The Saudis got rich selling oil for 1$ a barrel (5000 princes, royal family) and have given much of their wealth to many of the world's 2 billion member poor Muslim population. But amidst the conflicts involved, they do not mind killing one another (900,000 killed in Iraq-Iran War, 1988). There is no doubt in any one's mind that Iran is about to be involved in war again. The regime in power in Iran will be taken out, the three sects of Muslims: Sunni, Shi'ah, Khawarij will decide who dominates the world stage.

The world powers, including China and Russia, oil being the lubricant of all interests, (Russia interested in pipeline, China in energy supply) all have chosen sides...Israel has nothing to worry about (Genesis 12). World powers, including the Arabs, if they will read the Bible, will know that Israel's protection is predestined. There is a world coalition against Iran, Obama has already been bowing and scraping to the Saudis, this pending Middle East conflict is his trump card for reelection. It is only Americans who do not know what the world's Muslims know, that Obama is a Sunni Muslim. Democrats cannot read print, numbered paintings, or anything else because they are too busy with abortions and the gay agenda. Democrats pushed a communist-capitalist-Muslim into the White House, but many will survive to repent.

Crucial as the world stage, our national dilemma: bioethics, cloning, stem cells, biological warfare via germs, artificial and synthetic biology (hematology directed towards synthetic blood for use with pets and in warfare), cryogenics (not realizing that ice crystals so damage tissue). Scientists have so embarrassed themselves about many things (Global Warming, Gulf Oil, Recalled Drugs, etc.), many still believing that man is just a pile of chemicals, the injustice of killing one human being to save another. Thinking that the power who created the scientists, does not have the power to change everything. We too are looking for change, the change which the creator, not the creature, can make.