Ash Wednesday

Today, February 22, 2012, is Ash Wednesday. This day is celebrated throughout Christendom, 46 days before Easter, first day of Lent, a time of repentance and, “supposedly” remembering the second greatest event in the history of the world, God's sacrifice of His own son for the atonement of the world. It in Catholic, Anglican, some Protestant churches, a time for showing symbolic repentance by the placing of ashes on the forehead. In repentance, you make a change, a turn. Many Protestant and most Baptist churches do not observe Ash Wednesday. It is this writer's observation that many of these denominations, particularly Baptists, no longer observe anything. The throne room of God, fasting and prayer, replaced by the activity-family life center of feasting and festivities-activities. So much biblical history, Christianity, symbolism. We see this as the old testament is revealed in the new testament... the temple, 48 panels, (20 on each side, 8 in the rear) built of acacia wood representing the human spirit, covered by pure gold, representing the spirit of God. The Ark of the Covenant, representing Jesus Christ. BUT, Jesus instructed us to remember Him at His table. Very alive, blood flowing in His veins, we were told to remember Him, fruit of the vine, His blood, forgiveness of sins, bread, His broken body, healing of all disease and infirmities.

One of the more beautiful ways some churches REMEMBER, is by doing what Jesus did on that night when He remembered the Passover with His disciples. (perhaps 3 million Israelites, bondage in Egypt, perfect lamb slain, blood on door posts, flesh roasted-eaten for strength, the death angel passing over all homes on which the blood was placed, killing the oldest male, even Pharaoh’s son, and male animals, the last of the plagues before Pharaoh permitted the Jews to leave Egypt) Lastly, Jesus, showing humbleness, washed His disciple's feet.

The first mental image, in my mind, a very small child, my mother on her knees, washing another saint's feet in the family church building where both of my parents, their parents, and their parents, worshiped. The communion table, Lord's Supper, next to Baptism, the greatest privilege of a Christian, shows our remembrance of what Christ did for us. Even, if there were no other blessings in my life until I die, I do not DESERVE what He did for me. We have history, manuscripts. God told Noah to build a ship 250 feet long, 75 feet wide, 45 feet high, and Noah, with ancient tools, nails more like spikes, started working, and did so for 120 years, ridiculed by His neighbors. The Apostle Paul, Peter, Steven, preaching the Sovereign riches of God, just from their experience preached and all became martyrs for their faith. 90% of faith is just raw courage, they were courageous... “faithers”, action, based on belief, sustained by confidence. The atheist, bioethicist, pretenders of the world, like Mr. Obama and his ilk, have no idea what they are up against. Right now, Catholics are observing 43 days of concentrated prayer.

The atheists have become so brazen, even putting up billboards to establish their unbelief. Nikolai Lenin said, “Communists-unbelievers are dead men on a holiday, dead men have no needs.” We live in a transgenic world, gene manipulation, plants and animals. In 50 years, human beings as we have known them, will not exist. It is not just GMO foods, hybrid crops, but a satanic thrust toward a hybrid army of trans-human-transgenic people possessing the planet. Most scientific research involves genetics. There is warfare against human nature, reproduction, gender, (male and female) from the garden of Eden throughout the history of the old testament (shown with the importance of “male seed”, even circumcision, the results of enemy circumcision (Genesis 34)) It is only natural that Satan would eventually attempt to destroy marriage. (same-sex marriage, military mixing, the holocaust of abortion.) Surely, by now, the scientists should realize that all nature, cell-genetic activity is eternally coded by God, in spite of Satan’s attempts at species manipulation. Satan can only duplicate.

There are people alive, ages 90 to 100, who remember the first telephones, first automobiles, first radios. Many of us remember a world without zippers, plastics, artificial anything. Information has always been a non-material entity, there just waiting to be discovered. The coding on DNA was always there, Satan loves to deceive, captivate. Instead of dealing with God, even Christian pastors, prefer to have someone stretch out on a couch and talk to another “so-called specialized” human being for a price. God gave us the miracle of faith, dealing directly with Him, the manufacturer, the one who wrote the manufacturer's handbook (Holy Bible)

We have faith in other systems-things. You put a letter in the mailbox, addressed to another city, you do not follow the letter along to make sure it's postal-services-processes are correct and the letter will arrive at the correct destination. Even with an incompetent postal service, you have faith.

Anytime God says anything more than once,give attention. In the 37^th Psalm, three times, God says, “Fret not”. God told us to “fret not” about “evil-doers”, “prosperity”, “vengeance.” Christianity is not complicated, just tough. God does not lie, very careful in what He says. My quarrel with the church, we are told to give our problems to God, “Take your burdens to the Lord and leave them there. - Hymn But, every day, every way, through didactic means, we tell Jesus what to do.