Guardrails

Guardrails

            The poet John Greenleaf Whittier said, "When faith is lost, when honor dies, the man is dead." Any man who throws his life away, who takes that great slide towards the bottom, passes warning sign posts along the way. The thrill of this writers life has been, and continues to be, knowing and recognizing the uncommon man. Most of them, their names never appear in print.  But, they are well known by God and their fellow man.

            Such was a fellow army medical officer, Doctor David Boyd who I got to know very well because we shared many values of life. Such as overcoming what the world considers poverty, working our way through many years of school, learning to manage money well, to know the thrill-satisfaction of accomplishment.

            Many years after our army days were over, our taking orders from men of lesser nobility in the military, I was attending a convention in New Orleans, Louisiana. I knew he practiced in a nearby city, I called, made arrangements to visit him. He lived in an impressive-antebellum home. An empty nest since his two children had married and moved on and his wife had died from cancer. Walking into a spacious den in the rear of the house, over the fireplace was a spectacular gold frame. The frame was at least five inches wide all around, gold plated, at least three feet wide and five feet tall.  In the frame was a portrait of a very plain women, grey dress, white hair, in a bun. Her hands showed hard work, no signs of manicure. No jewelry, no makeup, and yet the artist had caught something in the eyes of this very plain women...kindness. I heard Arch Bishop Fulton Sheen say one time when asked to give three words that could change the world, "Simple- kindness, kindness, kindness."

            My friend, the Dr. said, "That is a portrait of my mother, to whom I owe everything. We lived on the wrong side of the tracks in our town, my father had promised me that I would go to college and then, unexpectedly, he died. There was barely enough money to burry him.  I will never forget my mother saying, keep studying-working hard and I will make sure that you go to college. She continued working her job at a local plant, cooking-sewing-cleaning for the public at night and weekends. And when it came time for me to go to college, by her savings, my working, I managed to get through my eight years-internship-residency. But, she taught me the important things of life during our years together. Most important-my Christian faith and the grace of giving. The tithe is the Lord's whether you give it or not and our offerings always came first. We never spent one dime on anything that was not important. We kept a daily log of everything we spent, every activity and God knew that our lives were completely yielded to him."

            There is the new beginning for the believer, repentance-baptism-Lord's table. You do not take from your commitment to a new life, "You just keep adding to it."

            We were talking at length about something we had discussed many times in the army: The fact, and it is a fact, that unless blessed with an inheritance which you did not earn, the secret to financial success is keeping up with everything you spend. You can not invest the money you have spent. Nickels make dollars and dollars take care of themselves. Even Einstein said, "Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it ... he who doesn't ... pays it.”

            So many have asked this blind veteran, "How did you accumulate your money?" I started at zero, blind, hard work, frugal living. It has never bothered me that people called me stingy. In college, (worked my way through eight years, job at night, classes during the day, selling Bibles door to door in the summer) called by my friends, "Iron pockets" because I never spent one dime unless necessary. The greatest secret, a daily record of every cent you spend. God's record that I have given from his generosity to me to his need. Of course for God to be God he needs nothing but with one tree in the garden of Eden, he established his rights and the fact that we cannot have it all. I would  rather have what is left from what is given to him, blessed, than what is left from the full 100%, cursed. YOU CAN NOT OUT GIVE GOD.

            Life is a matter of discipline. Character demands discipline. A blessed lifestyle of accomplishment demands nutritious food, abstinence from toxic medications, rest and exercise.

            Think of the BRUTAL world where the Virgin Mary, Joseph and even Jesus lived.

            We think things are bad at the end of 2012, and they are. Jobs are gone and they are not coming back. Every agency-system-entitlement is broke. We are an entangled third world type failure of government...controlled by a dictator, propped up by a state controlled news media, heading down a CLIFF of disaster and most citizens are unaware of the impending catastrophe.

            God in his mercy spoke and nothingness became something-ness. "In the fullness of time" (Galatians 4:4), God sent his son, putting on a tent of human flesh, to dwell among us. None of us would be saved through his perfect life. It is because of his resurrection, faith to faith, our faith in him, his faith in the father, that those of us called, predestined, through the new birth, having his righteousness in us, can face 2013 or anything else with serenity and security. It is not a matter of "playing church", rather the knowledge that "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4). When we know God's message to us, through his word, we will put up the guardrails of the Christian life.  

Hoops and Resolutions

Hoops and Resolutions

"Upon a darkened night
The flame of love was burning in my breast

And by a lantern bright....

While all within lay quiet as the dead"

The Dark Night of the Soul

-St John of the Cross

           

            2013 in sight (at least for those of you who can see-in my mind), most of us have spent our lives jumping-dancing-praying through the hoops of someone else's resolutions and regulations. I'm so tired of hearing about going over the cliff.  We have been over the cliff, downward spiral my entire lifetime (82 years). The hazing insanity-twirl of things getting worse everyday.

            About to go over Niagara or Iguazu Falls, the torrent current so swift that even if you wanted to, no boat, no person could alter course, turn around. The liberal-pagan unbelievers would have you believe as we have gone over the cliff-falls that we are just swimming-flying fast.

            In the dark night, soul of this nation, let one who has spent most of his life in darkness give testimony to what has happened. Have you ever considered the parallels between the development of religious faith in the church compared to the development of patriotism in the American experiment of political parties-political science and the deterioration of both religion and government?

            Christianity would have been just an off-shoot of Judaism if God had not put the Apostle Paul on the scene. In the beginning of the church, Jews, enthused with a gentile member. Today, the church, gentile, enthused about a Jewish member. Today's problem with the church and with democracy: the loss of PURITY in both. It took me a long time to understand the laughing, frowning gargoyles on European cathedrals. I would look at them and think, 'What was in the mind of these ancient stone masons?'

            Now we know, as we have seen cults mature and ease out of the church house. Perhaps the first cult, then and until this day, the masons, Masonic order attempting to find within themselves a "way, truth, life" that they did not find in Christ...rituals, "claims" on their morality, recognition signs by handshakes, and apparel. I truly believe that membership in the Masonic order, early America, a mark of fraternal-masculine accomplishment. Most Presidents were masons, and most men of means. My great grandfather's tombstone bore the Masonic emblem.

            It is from this venue of stability-organization that the church of Latter Day Saints, Mormons, developed. Joseph Smith, Masonic order member, 1830, wrote the Book of Mormon at age 24. Amazingly, he developed a following. People persecuted-harassed for their beliefs, growing all the time, to this very day.

            From the church, Charles Taze Russell, 1879 began writing and developing a following. Today, 42 million Watchtower magazines are published each month and their members, though persecuted, "beating the bushes." There are six kingdom halls in this town in which I live. Always, without fail, I can recognize a Jehovah's witness just by talking with them for a few minutes. Personality cult, members showing a personification of goodness. They have been trained to interact. Like the Mormon cult, now, all over the world. And, this very city where I live, Mary Baker Eddy, 1879, Science and Health with Key to Scriptures, founding and following of the Christian Science church. Then, L. Ron Hubbard, Dianetics, the scientology church. Almost too bizarre to explain, a belief that we are extraterrestrials-"thetans" in earthly bodies, having lived in extraterrestrial cultures in past lives. These too, are growing...Tom Cruise, John Travolta, etc, etc.

            Traveling the world, every continent, this writer well understands the religions of the world...Buddhist, Hindus, Muslims, etc. As most Christian denominations in America decline, Christianity is growing in the rest of the world, particularly in China.

            Phenomenal of my lifetime, people moving out of staid-cold-lost denominations. How could any Christian stay in a liberal-social church, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Black Liberation Churches, etc. Denominations who, in the past, believed in the inspired word of God. Now, politically correct, wanting to be popular-excepted by the world, lesbian-gay-unsaved bishops and pastors, acceptance of the damnable heresy of same sex marriage. "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean [thing]; and I will receive you" (2 Corinthians 6:17).

            In Europe, particularly England and France, Muslims are taking over vacated church buildings. Hungry for truth, American Christians, fed up-tired of a diabetic gospel (too much sugar from the pulpit), meeting in store fronts, homes, grasping-groping for fellowship in a place with true believers. This accounts for the remarkable growth of non-denominational churches such as Bethany, Baton Rouge, Louisianna, fantastic growth since 1963. The church with 7,000 members has given $63 million dollars to missions. There are several independent groups, growing in almost every town. Of course the fastest growing denomination, Assemblies of God. In 2011 they "planted" 368 churches. Believing, born again, saved Christians are on the move minus denominationalism. Baptists, afflicted and conflicted with the cares of this world, the need to be popular-accepted. Much like the Catholics (supposedly pro-life, pro-family) ELEVATED Obama to a second term. The votes of just these two denominations, Baptist-Catholic, could have prevented his re-election.

            So it is with the present American political scene, conservative American republicans are tired of RNC stupidity, sickened by the direction of our country. There is no hope for Democrats, they have gone the way of Sodom. But, true conservatives, true libertarians, independence, above all, Tea Party members, should huddle together AND, through fasting-working-prayer start a new and better awakening such as the one that this country experienced in the mid 1700's. America has not come this far to fall so low. In spite of our warts, even the debauchery of our leaders, God knows that many Americans have compassionate hearts capable of spreading God's goodness and glory.

Raison De'tre: Le Fin (Reason For Being: The End)

Raison De'tre: Le Fin

(Reason For Being: The End)

            The more the world changes, the more it stays the same. During the holiday season, we are bombarded with memories of the past. 70 years ago, a young boy, listening to everything older people said, thank God, I heard my saintly grandmother say, "The world is destroying the birthday of our Lord with lights on trees , buying, gift giving." IF, over the years, when she would not be able to recognize the commercialization of Christmas as today, the exuberant decorations as today, the spending and spreeing as today, with all the changes in the secular world, just a few souls have been brought to the knowledge of Jesus, his prophecy, his promises, the joy of being because of Him (raison de'tre). The end product of every spiritual activity, even the saving of just one soul, all of it worthwhile.

            This week in Chicago, two prisoners escaped a product of advanced technology, Chicago prison, back as in the old movies, tying bed sheets together and letting themselves down to freedom. Can we even imagine such in today's world? Next, we will see a stage coach heading west, next to the driver of the horses, a guard riding "shot gun."

            In other articles, in full detail, this writer has described how he worked each college year in the summer selling Bibles door to door (8 years). Onslow county, NC, a crossroads community called Richlands, and I remember as if yesterday and I feel sure its still there, a fork in the highway, one road going to Warsaw, one going to Kinston, sight of the Baysden Furniture store. It was there that two farmers, operators of the furniture store, Baysden and Sparrow, were counterfeiting $20 bills....here comes The Bible salesmen, it appeared to me that the people in the community surrounding the store, all knew about the money printing operation. (Supposedly money was printed for Fidel Castro, for him to use in some of his American exploits.)  Anyway, it was an old American-capitalism-free enterprise endeavor, storing fresh, worthless money in freezers-coffee cans. The government did not take a liking to this Richlands operation. I believe the men are still in prison. When the American citizenry, a lot like their government, doing the same thing, printing "funny money." In the government freak show which we must endure, Mr. Beneky-Obama-Geithner and their ilk printing-piling up more and more worthless money. No one seems to  care. So what if your groceries are doubling in price? So what if every nation in the world is propping up their own money doing the same thing? Unemployment in Greece and Spain over 35%. The only reason America recovered from the Great Depression as soon as it did (it took 20 years and WWII), because the rest of the world was not in depression. Now, every country, in the same predicament, Ireland, England, Spain, Portugal, Greece, etc. in bankruptcy. If that is not bad enough, the third world war incrementally but with all certainty, already started in the Middle East. We have a President who has never worked a day in his life, knows only how to play basketball and golf. Geithner, and most of the "President's men" never knowing what its like to perspire let alone sweat.

            He spoke and nothingness became somethingness. His word enmeshed with the Heavenly host, stars, galaxies, all interwoven in a magnificent tapestry of Him.

            In a well watered garden, God pulled back the curtain and produced man, image of Him, his being. The word love is much overworked, we use it for everything-loving cake, loving fellow human beings, even our pets.

            Compare the fact that God is love (1 John 4:8)..with the words "Love not the world, neither the things [that are] in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15). Likewise, "For the love of money is the root of all evil..." (1 Timothy 6:10).

           

            Stupid movies, soap operas, magazines, talk of making love, one stupid preacher actually said, "Make love to the Lord."

            There are light years between man's concept of love and the redeeming love of our blessed Lord, a love beyond man's ability to understand.

            Only when you understand the love of Jesus, willing to give his life for your sins, the sin-sickness of the entire world, can you understand the breath and depth of God's love for sin cursed people. When you understand the creator of the universe, love for whom he wanted a relationship, you can understand the paradoxes of dying to live, giving to get.

            God does not need me but, for a man drowning in a river of sin and disease, going down in a certain depth for the last time, it is not hard for a person to realize-recognize, love the "person" who reaches down and pulls you out. When you realize what God has done for the worst of us, even the best of us, you put a new value on people of every strip and persuasion the way God values them.

            At the very end of life, it has always been a matter of values..me against me. My reason for being at the end, my belief system, my mercy system, my clinging to his grace. You can give without loving but you can not love without giving. You can have an intellectual belief but it is faith, ACTION based on belief, sustained by confidence, that makes the difference in your reason for living.

            With America's technology, the wealth of the world, more Americans die from suicide than any other cause. "In him was life; and the life was the light of men. " (John 1:4).

The Blitzkrieg Bop

The Blitzkrieg Bop

"They're forming in a straight line
They're going through a tight wind
The kids are losing their minds
The Blitzkrieg Bop"

-The Ramones

            Blitzkrieg is an anglicized word, never before found in the vernacular until WWII. It involved the concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery, air power concentrating overwhelming force to break through enemy lines.

            This old man (82), looking around, looking back, still astonished that in my life most people still think that we are living in an aura of neutrality, on a level playing field. There is nothing neutral or fair in this life. Everything in scripture, history, science, involves separation: in the Old Testament, the clean from the unclean, science, positive and negative (every chemical equation, law of physics, plus and minus). History, always, separating good from evil even if it involves war. The social sciences, imprisoning people who will not conform. There are several generations who want to "do their own thing"-no absolutes, rules. The false religions of the world have their own measuring stick. In Christianity we call living on a higher plane of existence, born again, believers in Christ, transformed. Most people, in and out of the church, in and out of the court house, have never realized that we fight a battle against evil...that we are at war. "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8).

            The heartbreak of my life, those who claim the name of Christ, claiming all his promises, looking languidly at the world with its sensuous seductive enticements, knowing full well that the world pays off in counterfeit. This applies to my associates, family members, playing church, wanting the popularity-acceptance of the world.

            I will never forget, I can still see the young man's face as if yesterday, a junior chamber of commerce meeting (JC's), he said to me, "Tom, you take this matter of religion too seriously." I had not forgotten that old Welch preacher (he had memorized The Bible because preaching on the streets of Ireland he had no light to read), who had said to me, "To obey is better than sacrifice" (1 Samuel 15:22). For some of us, chosen-elected, obeying came at a great price. BLINDNESS IS MY GREATEST BLESSING. We do not have a chance in our fight against Satan, prince of the air, chief musician, who said, "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God" (Isaiah 14:27). A created being, God kicked him and 1/3 of the angels that he had seduced, out of Heaven. He and his demons (and they are real) are doing everything they can to take as many of us to Hell with them. They know their time is short. Most people do not realize that we "wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places]" (Eph 6:12).  The spirit of God in you shows your living and your giving. "Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4). We are promised everything we need for each day's battle, "as thy days, [so shall] thy strength [be]" (Deuteronomy 33:25). Every  Christian must start each day asking God for strength against temptation for that day. We should be as powerful as the law of gravitation, as simple as putting your feet on the floor, knowing that God's law of gravity is sufficient.

            Remember, The LORD of hosts [is] with us; the God of Jacob [is] our refuge (Psalm 46:7). The Lord of hosts includes all the stars-galaxies-His word. God could speak one word and everything could be recreated...as it once was. Nothingness to somethingness.

            For God to be God, he does not need anything, certainly does not need us. We are "squatters" here in His territory, a conditional lease. When will we get the mindset that He owns everything? He established His rights, demand to be trusted, in the garden, with the first couple; "Don't touch that tree."

            Your writer is an army field grade officer. We learned in past wars that most men never fired their weapons, scared to death. With the army financing the development of video games, it has all changed, culture of death in the military. Past wars, swords, bayonets, moral values, spiritual underpinning, men could see the faces of their neighbors-loved ones in the faces of the enemy. Problem is, children are now using "make war" video games, becoming insensitive to death...dying men, dead children.

            One large greeting card company supplies cards for prisoners during the holidays especially mother's day and father's day. Prisoners use many cards on mother's day, very few on father's day. Media has made fools of fathers. The ruling elite control the media and the media controls everything. The mindset-frame of reference for Western civilization, private property ownership rights-boundaries. Boys who do not honor an earthly father, a father who never set boundaries-property rights will never honor a heavenly father.

            In the world of technology, glorified preaching, "glamified" politician deceit. The blitzkrieg of magnanimity pollution, slowly but surely imbibes the best of us, to say nothing of the rest of us.

            Twelve uneducated men started a "way" that has changed the world. "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled" (Acts 4:13). One of the greatest satisfactions of my life, sincerely wrong unbelievers, too lazy to study, risking going to Hell because of ignorance, "Every check you write, every document you sign, most everything that has happened or will happen in your life, based upon the fact that Jesus Christ lived.  

Antiphon

Antiphon

            Satan's greatest weapon is discouragement. As long as we have a reasonable expectation for the way things will turn out, we maneuver very well in this world driven by the necessities of living. It is the unexpected that make the difference. When we go somewhere we hope to arrive there without problems, flat tires, trains on tracks across highways, etc. Interruptions from sickness, actions, problems which complicate our day, add stress and often despair to our lives.

            Many men who put on their socks this morning, a mortician took them off at night. This blind man handles things adequately, until the unexpected. The picture above shows my shoes on this date and, going to one of my buildings, talking with tenants, visiting with friends at a restaurant, employees, no one noticed that I had on two different shoes. So much for our importance. If you think you are important, try sticking your thumb into a pan of water and taking it out. I noticed long ago that dead family members were so soon forgotten, even though they had spent their entire lives contributing to the world....certainly their own families.

            I so remember my grandfather, father of nine children, important in his community. He died and his funeral was held on Christmas Day. So many in the family and else ware, troubled that he would pick Christmas to die...interfering with the holiday spirit. One must be willing and ready to deal the unexpecteds of life. It is the unexpected involved in the stock market that cause most of us to keep from making much money, and so it is with real estate and those involved in the recent bubbles, .com, housing market, bailout market, know what it is to lose. You do not always buy low and sell high. If there were no unexpecteds in life, we could predict everything, not only financially but spiritually as well. Life is totally unpredictable. This week, just one block from my house, 19-year-old young man, college student, working a part time job, killed on the way to his car after work for $10 dollars and a sandwich. Four young people (one as young as 17), are accused of his murder. Think of the heartbreak-trauma of his family, a promising young person. (http://www.wwaytv3.com/news_tags/murder). My city, same city, nearby, another man murdered while delivering Chinese food, five young murders (ages 14-17), eating the food then rummaging through his clothing after killing him. (http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20120621/ARTICLES/120629929). This delivery driver had migrated to this country seeking a better life.

            This week, nation withering-sobering with the news of the senseless killing of 20 children, six and seven years of age, their teachers, etc. at Sandy Hook elementary, Newtown, CT. There is a media frenzy about the killing of these beautiful children by a homegrown terrorist. The President, crocodile tears, making a spectacle of himself ("God called these children home")  before the world...even the worst of us, who know that he has no empathy for the 3,000, the most innocent of life that are killed each and every day in abortion clinics. He supports that along with his political party. He supports the evil of same sex marriage, along with his political party.

            Man had it made, garden of Eden, everything free of trials-tears. All man had to do was just OBEY. God established his rights, his sovernty, with just one tree. He told them, DON'T TOUCH IT. Satan, a created being, kicked out of Heaven, slithered into the garden, tempted and caused our first parents to chose the spirit of death instead of the spirit of life. Is it not significant that their first two children, Cain and Abel, Cain killed his brother Abel? And so it has always been...the ruin-heartbreak of sin. God first destroyed them all except eight souls (4,090 BC). From Or of the Chaldees, he started over with Abrahaam, then Isaac, then Jacob, the remarkable history of one people (Acts 7:4). Bible history, like all history, punctuated by killing. Some of The Bible's greatest characters killed and were killed. We think of Moses who killed an Egyptian, David who not only killed Goliath but killed Uriah, husband of Basheba. Later, David's son Absolan (considered one of the world's most beautiful men-no imperfection), tried to kill his father to gain control of the thrown. 184,000 Assyrian's killed one night by one of God's angels, and think of the thousands killed by a death angel in Egypt, think of the millions killed in wars, and so it goes on until this very day. WWI started with a murder. War is no longer up close and personal, killing one another with swords and bayonets.  Now, drones drop bombs on the most innocent. However, still 30,000 are killed by blunt force instruments (knifes), each year, many thousands more by bullets. Such is the nature of mankind. Technology has changed the world but the nature of man has not changed.

            Academia teaches us that there is some good in the worst of us, some bad in the best of us but, with the carnal-callous killings of young beautiful children in the school house, that person is nothing but evil. In the grace of free will which God gave us and even the purveyors of natural law believe we were all born with a conscience, perhaps a great number were left out. We have lost the wars against poverty, drugs, terror, many believe that it is left up to the mental health people to clean up this mess....that all people with mental problems should be government housed. Has anyone stopped to realize that if all the rejects of society (already 2 million in prison), are housed and cared for, it will take the remainder of the population to guard, clean, cook, test them?

            Ours is a spiritual problem, sins ruin and Christ redemption. God gave us all the answers we need but the politically correct-psychology tainted-Communist media, will never accept God's plan. When a shepherd had a sheep that was always straying, would not behave, he would break the leg of the sheep so the sheep could not walk and then would carry that sheep on his shoulder close to him. (You notice pictures of Jesus carrying a sheep on his shoulder.) Once the leg heels, the sheep can join the flock, that sheep never strays again, stays close to the shepherd.

Humility

Humility

Building monuments to yourself

(J.R. Miller)

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit" Philippians 2:3

No grace shines more brightly in a Christian, than humility. Wherever SELF comes in--it mars the beauty of the work we are doing. Seek to do your work quietly. Do not try to draw attention to yourself, to make people know that you did this or that beautiful thing. Be content to pour your rich life into other wasted, weary lives, and see them blessed and made more holy--and then withdraw and let Christ have the honor. Work for God's approval, and even then, do not think much about reward. Seek to be a blessing to others--and never think of self-advancement. Do not worry about credit for your work, or about building monuments to yourself; be content to do good in Christ's name.

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved--clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." Colossians 3:12

"All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another" 1 Peter 5:5

Addition Dr. Morris:

            Alright, I admit it: The most vicious enemy of the man who works hard, tries to make something of himself, wants his light to shine before others, humbleness. Just as it is not difficult for a homeless person to be a tighter, so it is not difficult for a ne'er-do-well to be humble.

            God kept the children of Israel wandering in the desert wilderness for 40 years to humble them. "And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every [word] that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live" (Deuteronomy 8:3).

            I'm sure this nearly three million people, delivered from bondage had rather to have been humbled in the promise land of milk and honey, and, stiff necked, rebellious, their bones were left in the wilderness because of their unwillingness to obey God.

            A rebellious-egotistical-self centered man is talking to you. Early in life, caught up with the parable of the sower.  "And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful" (Mark 4:19). I said to my grandson one day, getting into my nice car which I have never seen, "You can not imagine what a wild driver your grandfather was when he was young. It is just the grace of God that I did not kill myself or someone else. But, God knows how to slow you down. Blind, he told me, 'You will not drive again.' The last independence a man wants to give up."

            We live in a "get ahead" world, so many books on self improvement. The ambitious person wants to excel professionally, and in business. He wants his success evident to everyone. We, human beings, just wired that way. This writer's father, a very successful farmer, would mow the weeds up and down the miles of roads on his land so that all passers by could see that he had better crops than anyone else. His children were supposed to achieve better in school, look and act better everywhere. We had a beautiful-comfortable home, the tireless work of the hardest working man I have ever known. Thank God his children inherited this industriousness-good grades, high regard in the professional world. 

            I did not teach the men under me in the military to be humble. Reluctant-humble warriors never win. I believe our blessed Lord was speaking of his spirit in us, a spirit of putting God first in everything. "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31).

            This writer was never a good athlete but we know that sensitive-careful teams must equate their aggressiveness with sportsmanship. It is a beautiful thing to know a winning ball team..using every aggressive "play" in order to win, still capable of manly sportsmanship. "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain" (1 Cor 9:24).  The Christian must learn that everyone claiming the name of Christ is not called, chosen by God before the foundation of the world. Our long suffering God has given us the example. To those not saved but think they are saved, to those who are saved and know they are saved, to those lost in the quandary of the world, God help us to be kind, one to another.  "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you" (Eph 4:32).

Give In, Give Up

Give In, Give Up

"...cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ."

Dietrich Bonheoffer "The Cost of Discipleship"

            The world is full of dereliction, the shameful failure to fulfill one's obligation. This writer has no rationale-excuse to point fingers at anyone else.

            In the "prayer closet" a time of evaluation, quietness with only the presence of God, I realize just how cheaply I have valued his grace, and not just me, others, who claim the name of Christ, unwilling to "give in, give up" selfishness, in a world of wantonness.

            In this world of technology, one never knows what might happen next. My phone rang, I was not sure of the voice and I am sure he realized my hesitation. My friend said, "Tom this is Ned. We were students at the University 60 years ago. I have never forgotten you, someone gave me a copy of your blog and I thought, 'Could this possibly be the person I knew in school?' So, I googled you, found your blog, Facebook, along with your telephone number. You look older but not that much different from the time I saw you last-60 years ago. From your blogs, your photographs from all over the world, I see that you have had an exciting life."

           

            Ned said he had enjoyed some measure of success, lost his wife to cancer early but blessed with two daughters-five grandchildren. Retired, he lives in Arizona.

            He talked with me about blindness, the military, my interest in many things, including philanthropy at the University.

            In our conversation, we talked more about the enigma of my lifestyle when he knew me...working my way through school... my nickname, Iron Pockets, watching every dime I spent, while the men from the state's privileged families, products of prep schools, large well equipped high schools, the sons of the political elect, spending their time "networking," lazying around the "frat house," golfing and gold digging with the power brokers.  He remembered that I never ate meat...too expensive, always a vegetable plate. (Back then it was a matter of money, now, a matter of health.) He had remembered me saying, "This university is supposed to be for the state's best students in spite of the poverty of the state, the homes and backgrounds from which students come." INSTEAD, a watering hole-oasis in the desert of despair for the masses, for the elitist of the state....high society, "good ol' boys" club. He reminded me of my bitterness towards a world without shame for the "have not's" even at a place of liberty, freedom of thought, academic exploration. He remembered that I was one of the few white students who associated with the only black student there. (I was a student at UNC CH when the first black student was admitted, Harvey Beech. Who, like me, lived in Steele Hall.)

            He was amazed that anyone with my libertarian stained-trappings could become such a rabid conservative. I reminded him that because of liberals controlling government, agnostics controlling churches, socialists controlling academic education and the news media, contrived destructionists of The Constitution have slowly taken over our nation, every area of life and, like whipped-dumb animals, cowering to the masters of intimidation and fear, patriots and pastors have "given in", so quickly "given up."

            Check your biographies, the who's who of accomplishments, science, arts, finance, military. Almost without fail, the men and women of convictions-commitment, zealots of faith. Faith in family-God-country.

             I gave to Ned a basic course in religion. Basic Christianity, before the foundation of the world, God chose those who would honor him not only in belief but in recognizing those who would become the salt and light of the world. Even Christians do not realize that we are in a battle with the forces of darkness, "wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness in this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places]" (Eph 6:12). God does not need cowards and I have never known a liberal who is not a coward, always seeking the easy way, wanting to live off the sweat of others. SOMETIMES in three piece suits, country clubs, pill hill homes, but more interested in government subsidizing than God's sovereignty in a world of almost constant conflict-challenge. The person who has been handed everything..now entitlements, never knows the joy of giving in, attaining the righteousness of the Holy Spirit of God, "giving up" the silly ideas of personal pride-lust-laziness, cheating self from the grace, mercy, faith in an all sufficient creator. We do what we do because we believe what we believe. The true conservative, with courage, believes that saving babies is more important than saving trees or turtles (abortion), believes that the gay agenda antecedent of Marxism, has always failed. GIVE IT UP. God may talk with us with a hurricane called Sandy or a school called Sandy Hook. But you can be sure that he is talking and it is time for the world to listen. The message of the times, dispirited people, especially those who have spit in the face of our blessed Lord, you can not save yourself.  We all know, just as the world's greatest writer-Apostle Paul, knew, " For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I" (Romans 7:15), the challenge of life, as we face the world and a certain eternity. "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4).

Honey From the Rock

Honey From the Rock

"He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;

Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape" (Deuteronomy 32:13-14).

            Today's church is caught in a "PUZZLEMENT" never before seen in religious history. Much like today's health care "PREDICAMENT, curing nothing, treating symptoms. It happens over and over and we know why. In the city of Surprise, Arizona, large mega Purpose Driven Church, Pastor Dale Lee McFarland, disciple of Pastor Rick Warren (Saddleback Church Lake Forest, California), sued for $6.6 million by a couple claiming fiduciary duty and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, after McFarland, counselor to the couple, made sexual-perverted-pleasure advancements on the wife, for his purposes. McFarland, former executive with Microsoft had decided that he was called into the ministry, and as often the case with man calls rather than God calls, had built a large following of nominal-nomianist church members.

            In the new doctrine of nomianism a "half way house," "shades of grey," "religion," conjured up by Satan, so attractive to so many so called "Christians"  taught that grace is sufficient to cover all activity: that every "believer" will go to Heaven anyway, that God does not mind a little messing around. After all, God knows that we are all just human.

            Evidently Pastor Warren and Pastor McFarland have never read where Jesus requires a new birth, "Ye must be born again" (John 3:7). AND, Paul's admonition, "Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

            This old writer-doctor found early in life, people want truth. Even the agnostic will admit to desiring truth about an after life, and, you can attract great crowds to a mega church that will compromise with truth, The Beatles "All you need is love," and Sinatra "I did it my way."

            The ever present caution of Catholics and Baptists, "If they are in the pews, don't offend them-don't scare them with words like 'sin' or 'Hell', Christ redemption." In my lifetime, promotion of a "God in a glass box" religion, hammer outside, break the glass if you need him. Over and over, circumstances determining your faith rather than your faith determining your circumstances. The "bellhop" religion, Madison Avenue techniques, 20th century political correctness, 20th century, making a beggar of God...he needs us. For God to be God, he does not need anything. The one who threw the stars into space could convert an entire city of 500,000 over night if he desired, wanted them, having chosen them (Eph 1:4).

            Most large church houses, even old denominations, attendance shrinking, mostly just grey hair.  Young people who want truth are thrilled with store front, simple, assemblies. They want the simplicity of the gospel, basic Christianity. The record is clear, figures are out. Only 1% of all churches (I did not say cults) are growing by baptism. "A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still." This writer, long ago, a member of Belleview Baptist, Memphis, Tennessee, the great preacher, R.G LEE (church seating thousands, he, always in his white suit), standing at the front, end of service, the choir singing over and over again "Just as I am", begging reluctant sinners to "Come to Christ." I saw this many times, many places. Look at my first paragraph, "Treatment of symptoms does not cure anyone." When will we learn about the soil and sower (Mark 4, Matthew 13)? When will we learn that God "Worketh in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13): "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:27)?

            Never before in history have men needed more STAMINA and courage. Not only to care for the soul but care for the body. I believe that Christian faith is 90% raw courage.

            We know that health depends on what you put in your mouth. Probably, because of the poisons (chloride, fluoride) in public water systems, toxins in our food (GMO's, MSG's, preservatives), people have been so dumbed down. As the body, temple of God has become a dumpster, we are no longer able to discern right from wrong in our living, BODY OR SOUL. Healthcare expenses increased 23% the past three years and will go up 40% with Obamacare. So essential to detox the body, get all the junk out of it from marauding chemicals of our environment, lifestyles. Equally important to detoxify our soul, denying self-taking up cross (Matthew 16:24)....Mr. McFarland, Dr. Warren and all fellow human beings because, the born again-saved followers of Christ, know what to do. "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31).

           

            Many of us, including your writer, have known the gullibility of flirting with the Devil while holding on to our belief in Jesus. This day, next week, next year, believe me reader, I want more of Jesus and less of me. The older I get, the more I realize the distances we encounter from Jesus. Young, immature in everything, certainly care for our body, certainly love for God, heart, soul, mind, and neighbor as self (Matthew 22:37). Often a great distance mired up with the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. (Mark 4:19). With age, the distance to the transforming alter grows nearer-clearer-dearer, "present your body a living sacrifice, holy to God which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed but transformed" (Romans 12:1-2).

            Years ago, this writer, speaking to a group of preachers (not like McFarland and Warren), said, "I worked hard for my academic degrees, military rank. After death, my ashes will be interred next to the graves of my marvelous-hard working-God fearing mother and father. I just want my name, lifespan, and these words on the marker ' Because thy loving kindness [is] better than life, my lips shall praise thee'" (Psalm 63:3).

Beyond Glitter

Beyond Glitter

"We give thanks for those who have blessed us in this life through the spirit they have revealed to us in the midst of their sufferings and trials.  As the Giver of every good gift, you continue to bring your best gifts to us in the most unanticipated ways and often through the most unlikely people in our eyes to leave us enduring legacies of faith and hope... and perseverance in faithfulness.   We pause to remember them with thanks."

            My great uncle Blunner was not known in the community as an active Christian. My great grandfather's brother, farmer, he had lost his large farm, nice home during the Great Depression, still bitter from the loss. He coached the local baseball team, loved young people. Always, my entire life, was Santa Clause at our church. At the end of the Sunday school program, there would be a banging at the front door of the church and here would come uncle Blunner in that well-worn Santa Clause outfit, large bag of fruit and candy, handing it out to everyone, to their great delight.  Usually, oranges and tangerines because many of the poor children from the community, corralled by the Sunday school which often changed their lives for the better, had never seen an orange or tangerine. I well remember my own Daddy showing children how to peel the fruit.

            This was 80 years ago, the poverty of Eastern North Carolina. No power lines (electricity), only one phone line going to my cousins country store and only a few people in the whole world with inside water facilities.

            We were poor, poverty stricken by today's standards, although my mother and father's families were land owners. Our country church had gas lights (carbide, gas from a large tank in the church yard), I so remember those beautiful gas lights, my cousin Relmen standing on pews as he would light them. Most church houses, even the school house, used kerosene lamps, I so wish I had one of those gas lights. I know they would have given me one because years later I gave electric chandeliers to the church.  I so remember my parents taking their children 50 miles to Raleigh to see real Christmas decorations...colored lights, decorations strung across streets, large Christmas trees with electric lights.

            Later, eight years of university, studying evangelical-fundamentalist doctrines involving God's word, I became disenchanted about using Christmas trees-secular decorations in God's house of worship. "For the customs of the people [are] vain: for [one] cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They [are] upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also [is it] in them to do good" (Jeremiah 10:2-5).

            Oh, how I have changed my mind. Perhaps, there are things that should not be in God's house but, the joy of Christmas to those poor children, those old people burying the marks of sweat and toil. A time of homemade dolls, trucks, balls. Other than a Sears Christmas catalogue, they knew little about the commercialized Christmas. They never saw enough of the Sunday school nativity program. Older children in bathrobes (shepherds and wise men), the magic that younger children's mothers could do with crepe paper,  with the depths of the Great Depression, scarce food, empty pockets, some joy into their lives. WHAT MORE WOULD OUR BLESSED LORD DESIRE?

            There has always been a remarkable therapy in laughter. The people of the Great Depression did not have much to smile about, laugh about. Even their funerals were a ritual of relief. The most laughter I saw, Mr. Zeb, who never had anything to say at the church, only sang bass, never expected a gift but a male friend had put a brightly packaged gift on the tree which was brought to him. He seemed so excited as he began to tare into the package. Out of the box, jumped a rabbit, running all over the church, to the absolute thrill-delight of the children and the oldsters who were there.

            Nowhere in scripture are his followers-believers told to celebrate his birth, only at his table, to remember his atonement. This writer, older, now knowing the callousness of the world, we know that our joy awaits us. Last breath here, leaving behind the trials of living, first breathe there, eternal joy. But, celebrate with laughter, giving whatever personifies the Christian joy and thankfulness for salvation while here. What better time than the colors, sounds, giving of a season set aside to remember the birth date of Jesus, the greatest event in the history of the world. If your Christmas has become commercialized, more intent on spending and spree-ing than remembering, it is your fault. When all the world, including Christians, become so involved with glitter that they forget the bitter or the better, then Christmas will truly be just one more extravagant holiday.

            I spent one Christmas Eve in Bethlehem, 1960. It was so cold, the sky so bright, in my imagination I know that God really put on a show for those shepherds, he spared no expense, after all he was celebrating his only sons birth. Perhaps millions of the heavenly host singing to the amazed-scared shepherds.

            When will some Hollywood producer, wanting an academy award picture show, produce a story of an early American Christmas- before commercialization? Plain-sane people amazed by and grateful for the greatest gift the world has ever known.

            Grandson of Abraham, twin son of Isaac, Esau, could not discern the spiritual heritage available to him. He traded his birth right for a bold suit. In this pressure cooker world of profane-unconcerned people, don't get into that broad way that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:14). Beyond the glitter, gladness.

           

What's Next?

 What's Next?

"For [it is] not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me.....By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once [for all]" (Hebrews 10:4-5, 10).

            Yesterday, December 11th, Leopold Museum, Vienna, Austria, display of male nudes, sculptures and paintings through the ages, which 65,000 have so far attended since the opening on October 19, one adult male walked through the gallery totally naked. It was said that no one cared. So, not just in America but around the world, decadence reaches its own level. For those who study God's word, not surprised at the depravity of man, no longer shocked by anything. As Thomas Aquinas said, "To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible." Why should believers be surprised or even shocked at the heathenism of unbelievers? Perhaps God was shocked, not surprised, at the paganism of the first 5,000 years of men on earth. "And GOD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5). But, God does not mess around, knew how to handle man, drown them all except eight souls, Noah and his family whom he saved on an arch. So basic, Christianity is so simple, just tough. Everything explained at the very beginning, he gave man everything, paradise, life, all sufficient, not even a whisper of death. God's rights, rules, commands, separation, established with just one tree...DON'T TOUCH IT. But man, freedom of will, chose the spirit of death rather than the spirit of life, chose not to trust.

            Every promise-prophecy to this second, in God's word, has been fulfilled and we know, that the earth will be destroyed with fire. Anyone who can read the inspired word of God in his book, next week or next century, or whenever he choices, this too will happen.

            I regret to inform you that America is over. We keep hearing the words of the state controlled news media that "A recovery is on the way." Even the Marxist in The White House tells us that our best days are ahead. Has anything, other than technology, improved in your lifetime? Marxist Lennon said long ago, "Most men are just the walking dead." Having traveled throughout Russia, many communist countries, I can tell you without contradiction that this is true. The communist-unbelieving countries void of happiness, just desperate sadness-ugliness. As Andre Solzhenitsyn said, "Russia forgot God." The heartbreak, the Christian nation (Supreme Court declared America a Christian nation 1799-1892), wonder of the world in wealth and technology, military mite, an industry bought and paid for the subterfuge-deceit which Satan sold.

            It ran its course through my lifetime, slow, decadence in every area of American life: political, commercial, educational, spiritual. God, SLOWLY, expunged from everything. Then, and I almost fell out of my seat when I heard the words, President Bush (41) addressing congress on September 11, 1990, said, "Out of these troubled times, our…objective - a New World Order - can emerge." Stupid American's elected his son (Bush 43), to further fulfill the objective. No one will ever know the real damage the Bush family has caused this nation...U.S Senator Prescott Bush, Nazi sympathizer, laundering Hitler money. The road was opened wide for Obama, now bringing to the front debt and deception plunging the nation into the "one world order" of control and apathy. The very "guts" that built this nation, capitalism, free enterprise, the "zest" to succeed. Now, 100 million subsidized by government, 25% of the population on food stamps, welfare families receiving $168 a day in government funds for sitting at home, "Lazy Boy" addicts, gorging themselves on trash in the throat and in the eyes, thinking that those of us who work for a living or even DEFEND this nation are just "fools."

            I am a totally blind, 100% disabled, service connected medical officer veteran of the Korean conflict. I have never been able to get so much as a white cane, talking watch, from the VA. Like most elderly people, living alone, particularly blind and disabled, fire and break-in's are our greatest stressors. Would anyone believe that an old blind veteran, in a day of technology, would have to resort to piling cement blocks at the inside of his entrance doors? But, it took the FDA 30 years to recommend vitamin C for colds. We know that there are 100,000 gang members in Chicago alone. In the future, for you "normal" people, it will be a matter of attempting to grow your own food as well as defend your own food. More people go into poverty everyday, a spoiled generation, an 11-year-old girl upset because she does not have a cell phone (all her friends have one). Government agencies, too many, loaded down with greed-controls, a new form of Mafiosi.

            For many years, this writer maintained an expensive NY "Pied a' Terre"-a launching pad for my world travels, a very nice home away from home. Over the years I had noted the bullying-brazen NY police. Early morning, tremendous racket across the street, police marauding a thief. I have never heard such language-racism-hatred. Human life seems to be very "cheap" in the war torn Middle East, relax, it is heading this way. IF a nation has a sloven attitude toward the most innocent of life, the unborn, what's next for you? Have you noticed that your senators, congress people, no longer answer your letters?

            Next on the Christians calendar, the blessed return of our savior, delivering us from this vale of tears. In the mean time, you must believe his word, trust his word. Christianity has been sold so cheap, signing a card an alter experience. The 20th century made a beggar of God. The uninformed-modernist intent on using Madison Avenue techniques, making a beggar out of God,  BEGGING you for your tithe, offerings, church worship, even prayer meeting attendance. For God to be God he does not need anything, certainly not us. Before the foundation of the world, he chose those who would "grab" him and spend eternity with him. The committed Christian can not be taken from him, doubts and fears do not frighten them. The starting point of faith, "Just saith the word of God."  "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6).