Rejection and Opposition

It is a very long historic story, much of it found in the Bible, but Cyrus, conqueror and ruler of the world's great Persian empire, after he captured Babylon where 650,000 Jews were in their Babylonian captivity, allowed 50,000 Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple, around 515 BC. Cyrus was killed in 530 BC at the Syr Darya, with the ambition of capturing Egypt. It took the 50,000 Jews along with their cattle and families four months to cross the desert and return to Jerusalem, where ancient Solomon's temple, magnificent beyond compare, was in ruins.

It is only someone who has a vision, who had been through what these people had experienced, who could make offerings, worship, work in the hot sun, building with rocks, and at times, after finishing a project could celebrate with so many tears that onlookers could not tell if they were laughing or crying. They did not care, God's chosen, about rejection or opposition. After the foundation was finished, they celebrated, but infiltrators had entered their ranks and caused discouragement. Doubts were thrown their way about ever building something equivalent to the Solomon glory. They could not foresee that even the Messiah would teach in that building. For 15 years, they laid down their tools and weapons because of losing the vision, and did nothing. Much of this story can be found in the book of Ezra.

The shock therapy of life: after every victory, the test comes. It was because of a very old prophet Haggai, that their spirit returned. But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them. O Israel, trust thou in the LORD: he is their help and their shield. (Psalm [of Haggai] 115:3-9) It was this old man, nearly 100 years old, who gave the necessary encouragement to build the temple in which Jesus and his disciples would worship against all opposition and rejection.

Many must wait for someone to tell them to go to work, it is a lazy son who sleeps late during harvest time (Proverbs 10:5) I can still remember how early we went to work on the farm during harvest time. Slothfulness has ruined many families and has now ruined a nation, hard times are prevented by learning early in life that your ways cannot be determined by opposition and rejection. If I had quit selling, door to door, every time I had a rejection, I would never had sold very many books, would never had finished and financed my eight years of university education.

One of my friends, Dr. C.L Lewis who became a prominent healthcare practitioner and Christian laymen, worked as I did on the book sales field every summer. He said, “I want my son to do the very same, because it will teach him more about rejection and overcoming everything than anything else I know. Prosperity, success in life, usually involves selling something. I know of no one who has made very much money without selling something: self, real estate, insurance, securities, etc. Job security, vacation time, entitlements, comfort at work lies in tightening a screw, same way, same time, day-in day-out on some assembly line of life. Success (business, political, professional) comes in the knockdown, drag-out of facing opposition and rejection.

The most difficult job I know is in telemarketing, one girl who worked for me as a secretary had such a job, one telephone call after another to people who were just a voice on the line, trying to convince them to buy something they did not want. You should hear her describe the number of hang-ups, cursing, insults, it would be easy to become bitter with such a job. When faced with such opposition, rejection, we'd better understand the love and blessings of all mighty God.

It is because we just go along to get along, do not stand up against tyranny anymore. We have decided that opposition and rejection are not politically correct, are afraid we might embarrass family or friends. We have allowed a nanny state to take over, government in total economic dominance, even to all energy consumption, water usage, control of your life through licenses and permits. It is only with a false flag of government deceit and lying, that the American public can be excited anymore. Oklahoma City bombing, which we know was a lie, or the Gulf of Tonkin, sinking of the Battleship Maine in Havana harbor, throwing babies out of incubators in Kuwait, all these things we know were government lies, creating patriotism by the cruelest form of rejection, deception. Only a terror attack can save Obama...such has been concocted before. Russia is stronger now, both economically and militarily, than any time during the cold war when America made Russia our enemy...add all the deaths of Hitler, Mao, and other tyrants, they will not equal the deaths caused by Stalin, who during WW2 was made our friend and ally by our government.