Engulfed

Two years ago, yesterday, President Obama was inaugurated as president. It has been the most stupefying two years in American history. No one could have convinced our ancestors that the American voters would inaugurate a Sunni Muslim as president of the United States, a known quantity, a Marxist with no experience in business, and little in government. Through his appointments, America has been taken over by socialism without a shot being fired, a type of socialism you find in France, Russia, China.

While most of us have our nose to the grindstone, trying to survive, he and his ilk have increased the national debt to the place that it can never be repaid. In two year times, he increased the debt more than all the presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush. The past two years are an embarrassment to our ancestry, patriots, Christians, hardworking, God-fearing, tax-paying citizens who have defended this country militarily all over the world, and fortresses of decency, responsibility within the borders.

In 1804, President Jefferson, following the Louisiana Purchase, commissioned Lewis and Clark to explore the northwestern frontiers of America. They were given $2500, gifts for the Indians, including silver medals with Jefferson's likeness, medicine and weapons with which to engage the many Indian tribes. Leaving Saint Louis, the 33 in the expedition proceeded to the Pacific, mapping and making historical notes of the many Indian tribes. One of the Indians in the expedition, along because of his knowledge of languages and survival practices, had a knowledge of the Bible, and had a Bible with him.

In Idaho, he presented messages from the “heaven book” to an Indian tribe. They did not forget what he talked about, and would sit around and talk about the messages of the heaven book. Slowly, those with memories began to die, and they realized that they needed the “heaven book” (Bible). Since no one from the expedition ever returned, like the Children of Israel, they decided to send five to find the expedition and bring back a heaven book. The five Indians, Running Bear, Deer with Two Horns, Plains, Grass Dweller, and Horse Runner left to walk the 1,000 miles to St. Louis. One of the five turned back, the other four walked the 1,000 miles, they finally found Clark, not a religious man, who did not own a Bible. Clark was busying showing these Indians off to his fellow Americans...not one mentioned the “heaven book” to the Indians.

Before the four left to return to their tribe, one of them said to a St. Louis newspaper, “we are not interested in your city, your weapons, your way of life, we came looking for your 'heaven book', we want one, and no one seems to know anything about it.

One of my friends, a brilliant doctor, everything in life that one could want, an unbeliever, said to me recently, just before leaving my house, “Tom, don't change, you are the only hope I have.” I think he meant by that, that if I had any doubts about my salvation, he would truly be hopeless, in this world of hopelessness...engulfed by problems in every direction.

As our national leaders smooched the president of China at the White House and elsewhere, I could not help but remember, what I had seen on my several trips to communist China, hopeless people engulfed by a godless, confused, authoritarian, totalitarian, anti-humane servitude to government. Every civilization has been touched by the Creator of the universe, the most isolated Indian tribes, then and now, have their own theory of numbers, know multiplication tables, know about magnetism.

In New Guinea, the natives told me that the sweet potato was an all-sufficient food, I had walked through miles of sweet potato fields to a remote area where a sing-sing festival was taking place. Clad in their bird of paradise feathers, the men separated from the women, these natives were singing and dancing with rhythms similar to those found all over the world. They had never seen an electric light, television set, but had been able to survive for many years without western cultural decadence or technology.

In China, a nutritionist at a well-known university told me that a radish had more vitamin c than an orange. A military officer laughed, telling me about the obsolescence of American aircraft carriers, he said, “with guided missiles, can you imagine how quick we will put them on the bottom of the ocean.” We have become engulfed by our own incompetence.

The greatest tragedy of America's existence, at a time in history when we should have every advantage, every satisfaction in our lifestyle, we are engulfed by insolence, not only toward one another, but toward other nations. We are a profane society, have spit in the very face of the Creator God of the universe. Misinformation has surpassed information, we torture one another with user fees, exploiting each other with interest payments on credit cards, insidious taxation, our jealousies toward one another and the people in the rest of the world, results in our immediate revolution...fight or flight.

We look at everyone as untrustworthy, politicians, merchants, pastors, teachers, even members of our own family. I have been in places in the world where some rode camels, others drove Mercedes. In the same community, they got along with one another, gave the impression of liking one another. Oil comes from the same place that water comes from, the earth, owned by everyone, humanity should be a sharing experience.

The magnetic field of the earth is moving toward Russia. There is still much debate about the true north and the magnetic north, but one thing about which there is no debate, each time there has been a magnetic field shift, there has been horrendous climate changes, not just shown with dead birds, dead fish, dead cows, all of which have a God-given compass, but horrendous blizzards, droughts. You can expect to see food prices increase drastically this year. Biophysics, and all animal activity, bombardment with electrons, like sonar in the ocean affecting the marine life, electricity (something which we cannot even define) is spattering life. God talks to us, but very few want to listen. We need to be engulfed by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.