The Purpose of It All

I was totally enthralled, my friend had taken his wife and university student children to the Rembrandt Exhibition in Raleigh, 47 Rembrandt canvasses, the largest Rembrandt Exhibition in America. Now he is not an art critic but he, with great enthusiasm, described to me the magnificence of the painter, almost 500 years ago... how one could possibly capture on canvass the most intricate detail, even sunlight and shadows. This blind writer SO appreciated his sharing his experience with me. Blessed to visit the great galleries of the world, (Louvre, Prado, Uffizi) everything was described to me. Like the prophets and saints of the Bible, you must put flesh and blood on artists to appreciate them, the fact that God chose and blessed some with such talent.

It is rare for anyone to describe anything to me. I told a taxi driver once, “you are the only one who has described the flowering dogwoods and azaleas to me.” My blind friend Katherine, born blind, school for the blind, guide-dog through many years of college, felt free to ask me to describe to her the texture of frogs, snakes, bark on trees because she knew I had seen when young. Strange that educators of the blind and disabled never put themselves in the shoes of those they pretend to help. If you have never sinned, you cannot call Christ Savior. If you have never sinned, you cannot teach or preach forgiveness.

At the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome, statue of Moses by Michelangelo, so real, that even the artist, after finishing, hit the statue wit his hammer and said, “Speak to me.” At the Galleria Borghese, Rome, my guide told me about the musculature, vessels in the hands of the statue of David as he was about to fling the sling with a rock to kill the giant Goliath.

The purpose of it all, whether art, politics, or just individual lifestyle, WITH JUST ONE LIFE TO LIVE, chosen by God with our own DNA-individuality, to glorify God and give the best version of ourselves.

In 1938, the Nobel prize in physics went to Enrico Fermi, Italian born, explorer of the universe-quantum theory-nuclear reactor. This brilliant scientist, so alone in his talent, looked around and said, “Where is everyone?”

We mere mortals should take comfort in the fact that God Himself, Creator of the universe, in a tent of human flesh-dwelling among us, chose 12 disciples who were very ordinary... mostly ignorant-classless fishermen, and yet changed the world.

The last days of Jesus' ministry, He had warned them that He would be betrayed and sacrificed for the sins of the world. He took three of them with Him to the Garden of Gethsemane and told them to wait, “enter not into temptation”, while He prayed. They went to sleep. Peter, the most human of all humans, an impulsive male enigma. Here comes the betrayer, Judas, with a mob. How did Peter cut off Malchus' ear with his sword, without hitting his head or shoulder? Peter had the temptation for action, before prayer... building tabernacles, following from afar. (Luke 22:54) As we fall, as with Peter, there are always signposts along the way but it is only the unsaved who does not get up and start over. If we could only learn, as the fall starts, to press closer, probably 99 of 100 Christians fail to pray each day not to fall into temptation. When our blessed Lord taught us to pray even He said, “Lead us not into temptation.” (Matthew 6:9-13) “This writer believed that he should have added a corollary for us not to put temptation in another's path. In prayer, God is available for every human need... the greatest Power the world can ever know.

Once, in a meeting of doctors at Duke University, difficult cases were being discussed. One old man, Dr. Henry Day, said, “When I have a difficult decision, I pray.” The smart, young, Jewish doctors sitting around me, began to snicker. I thought, how sad with all their knowledge, they do not have “real learning”.

It is easier to get out of God's will than to stay in it. Many jump into action instead of praying. My foreign missionary son told me, that with new believers, “they always pray before doing anything else.”

Prayer is better than sleeping tablets, reading, music, for those who have trouble sleeping. Dr. Russell Blaylock, brain surgeon, neurologist, tells us about the dangers of vaccines, fluorides in our water system. (russellblaylockmd.com) Women who rush to have an abortion, should stop and realize, in pregnancy, the entire metabolism of a female changes... preparing the body for birth. This is the reason that 50% of women who have abortions, because of the cell change during pregnancy, have breast cancer... the purpose of it all.

The great rule for Christians, when out of step, press in, pull in close to the Power of the universe, the One who gives purpose for it all. There is no such thing as incidental discipleship. With all the weaknesses of Peter, SEVEN WEEKS after Jesus searched his soul, on the Galilee shore, about loving Him three times after having denied Him three times: from his personal experience with the Savior, from the eclismic experience of the resurrection, he so preached that 3000 were saved in one service... the beginning of the church.