Hand Me Downs

Merriam Webster says that hand me downs are ready made usually cheap and shoddy. Those of us reared in the Great Depression, know about hand me downs. My younger brother certainly wore clothing which I had outgrown. It seems strange now, in this time of designer clothing, expensive dress makers, that females of my youth wore mostly homemade clothing-dresses. Some women lived their entire lives and never had a store bought, ready made dress. Most men, after adulthood never own but one suit of clothes... and they were usually buried in that suit. I remember helping one of my old uncles get dressed for a funeral. He had one pair of Sunday-High Top shoes, at 70, the only Sunday shoes he had ever owned. (And they were still in good condition, because he had polished them every time he wore them.)

I still have clothing which I wore in college, over 60 years ago... shirts, sweaters, ties (which I have worn my entire life) One should be a conservative not just in politics. If a man tells me he is a republican conservative and he is not conservative in every way... every area of his life, saving money, responsible in his eating and other habits, living a “Holy life” before his family and community. Unless I see these qualities, he is not a conservative. I have seen too many hungry people around the world on my many world travels, to throw away any food. Thank God, I have saved every book, every magazine (even from planes of defunct airlines, even playbills of Broadway plays) All these things I am now selling online. Americans are a wasteful people. You could not believe the physical depravity I have seen in this world. (hungry people, people dressed in rags living in squalor). At least 3/4ths of the world's population would like to live from the average American's garbage can.

I do not hold myself up as an example for anything but, I do not own one article of clothing which was not bought in a thrift store... not one shirt that costs over 25 cents... second hand... hand me downs. Living a frugal-sensible life, I can give most of my income to those in need, those involved in God's work, awards and scholarships, which should encourage recipients.

It is not always attainable but, every child should have the advantage of a mother and father. I had the great advantage by being raised by two hardworking, god-fearing, tax paying parents. My mother and father were the hardest working people I have ever known and, because of their hard work, their four children knew by example the honor of work, achievement, the value of a dollar. Their children excelled in school, all college graduates, all successful careers, all millionaires. We know from where we came.

(Isaiah 51:1-6) Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.

I have one cousin who has never said one good word about a member of his family, his ancestry. Reared by hardworking, god-fearing parents, both of which came from the same type families, always bitter because some were more prosperous. I know he had a hard life, so did many of us but, he took advantage of opportunity and excelled. You cannot spend your life by cutting others down, even your own ancestry to build yourself up. I have tried to explain how fortunate to have had his ancestry, opportunity. (1 timothy 3:16 (God was manifest in the flesh))

In September, 1952, first Methodist Church, Memphis, TN, I heard an assistant pastor read from the NIV version opt the Bible. He said, “This is a historical day in your life, a new version of the bible not a hand me down from 1611. The KJV, 1611, (we celebrate it's 400th anniversary this year) is the gold standard of translations. Scholars, from 5,309 manuscripts not one varying from the other, we have the greatest literature, poetry... the bible is the only book that verifies itself. (Holy men to transcribe). We worship God's word in everything, there must be two for choice. In the translation, we have the King James, and then the others. There is now a homosexual translation in which God is considered neutral.

Satan tried, could not keep God's word from mankind. Revolutionary when the bible became available to the common man. William Tydndale, who spoke eight languages, so incensed Catholicism and the King of England, translated the bible from Latin into English, was burned at stake in 1536. Tyndale's ashes washed into the Thames, from there to the oceans, and from there through the world, the bible is now in every corner of the world, many language translations. So many mistakes in new translations. Satan attempting to compromise God's inspired word. Example: 1 Timothy 3:16 and others about the Virgin Mary. Many fundamentalist scholars believe that new translations such as the NIV are perversions... go so far as to compare real gold with fool's gold.

Whether the Septuagint, Latin Vulgate, or Geneva Bible, any hand me down with a moral compass as fogged as it is in the world today, we need to read, hear, study, God's word, the manufacturer's handbook from the designer Himself.