Remembering Pearl Harbor, December 7

REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR

© 1941
Lyrics: Don Reid, Sammy Kaye, Music: Don Reid

History in ev'ry century
Records an act that lives forevermore.
We'll recall, as into line we fall
The thing that happened on Hawaii's shore

Let's remember Pearl Harbor
As we go to meet the foe
Let's remember Pearl Harbor
As we did the Alamo.

We will always remember
how they died for Liberty
Let's remember Pearl Harbor
And go on to victory.

This writer, world traveler, committed-and-convinced Christian, while speaking before a pro-life group, said, "This former embryo is speaking for other embryos. This old soldier, now speaking for those in uniform, who gave their life, and never had the opportunity to grow old."

It was a Sunday afternoon. This eleven-year-old boy, sitting in the "fire room" (the one room in most country homes which was heated), was sitting by my grandfather's old Silvertone radio, when the news came that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. Of course I quickly announced to the others in the house that Pearl Harbor had been attacked. But then, as now, my own relatives never thought I knew what I was talking about.

But Jesus, said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.

Mark 6:4

How important it is to motivate and honor members of your own family. If you are not going to toot the horn of your own "kinfolk," who is going to toot their horn? I often wondered how many degrees I must earn, how much money I must make, how many honors, for my own kinfolk to give me any recognition whatsoever. I tell all parents to talk of their ancestors to encourage their own children. I have listened for years, but never heard a relative say one good thing about my military service or success in any endeavor. If I had been a criminal and spent my life in jail, they would probably visit me. I could count on my fingers the members of my family who have ever been in my house.

What's more radical than this thinking? Have you ever considered the fact that heterosexual couples produce children, who they obviously love. They go through all the fretful times of child rearing. Yet, even though their children have been taught good manners at home, taken to church and Sunday school-- where they learn the basics of decent living, they will send the same precious children, their offspring, DNA of their own ancestry, to a public school where every profane sin of the imagination is a reality. They hear every profanity. Their eyes are opened to every evil image. Their faith is challenged by atheist teachers.

Unbelievable. Parents sacrificing many comforts, good times, to educate sons and daughters, which they, often reluctantly, send into the military services. Can one even imagine a sensitive boy or girl subjected to the horrors of present-day warfare. During the Civil War, a war of neighbor against neighbor, a war in which many of the wounds were inflicted by swords and bayonets, 84% of the deaths were caused by disease. How well I remember my own mother going from bedroom to bedroom in our drafty old farmhouse, and reaching under each quilt to see if the feet were warm. Think of the mothers of those Civil War warriors, knowing that their sons were laying on the ground, often in the rain and other weather. During the Civil War, the only food of the warriors was cold salt pork (at my home we called this fatback) and hard flour or corn bread (bread made with just water, and flour or cornmeal).

Of course military services were better on December 7, 1941 and even better today (I speak of clothing, meals, sick care). However, death and disease are still part of the military service. Is there a person alive who actually believes that any young sensitive military type can recover from seeing one of his friends blown to bits by an IED (improvised explosive device)? Or children killed by bombs, shells, or fire on the warfront?

Even at the time of the Civil War, those in battle realized the manhood and supernatural decency of opposing forces. Often, between battles, someone from the south would walk out to a stump and place a bag of tobacco on the stump. Then a man from the north would come out, take the tobacco, and replace it with a bag of coffee. This was the humanity of warfare.

Perhaps the attack on Pearl Harbor was not a sneak attack-- as portrayed then. We know how stupidly we accepted the Gulf of Tonkin story, the impossibility of the 9/11 story, and so it goes. Those responsible for the trespass of treason will account to a power far greater than anything on this earth. In the meantime, we bask in the knowledge that there will ever be men and women, in spite of all differences, who can demonstrate the love of the one who created all of us. It is remarkable that many WW2 veterans, who survived the Pearl Harbor attack, now have their cremated ashes, in urns, buried in the bottom of the ships that went down. The soldier-warrior, short life or long life, always chooses burial in uniform, alongside his comrades.

Life and Living

"The unexamined life is not worth living."

-- Socrates

Our world is electricity, magnetism, matter/ mass, made up of molecules, atoms, positive and negative forces. All chemical reaction, all laws of Physics, everything in God's creation, is a matter of vast emptiness, but is attracting.

Loneliness, being alone, is not an option, but human beings, God's greatest creations, often found there.

This writer never did not fit in with just any attractive force-- family-house, schoolhouse, church-house.

I remember as if yesterday, finding my way to a large Baptist church (Parker Memorial, Anniston, Alabama). I attempt to never find fault with the bride of Christ, God's universal church. But, so many earthly organizations of believers, which we simply call a church, do not fit the picture of Christianity-- big I, little you, cliques, unconcerned for the newcomer. At Parker, one doctor, his wife and their doctor son, ran things. It was so obvious that the pastor catered to them, and so did everyone else, because they had the name, influence, and money. So many of us must, in claiming the name of Christ, be willing to let go and let God. He has told us that He that is the greatest among us shall be our servant. And He has told us so often that we entertain angels and are not aware of it. (Hebrews 13:2)

One of the nation's outstanding C.I.A agents, always under a umbrella of secrecy, had heard this writer on the radio-- talking about world travel, my work as an antiquarian book collector. He called me (to this day he has used several names), and wanted to come by to visit me. He said, "I can hardly wait to meet a man who loves books as much as I do." When he arrives, and after we had talked for a while, he knew that I was aware of military secrecy, more than just the fact that you do not put your hands in your pockets near a president. He knew I would understand when he said, "Are you sure there is no mud on boots in this house." Meaning, "Are you sure your house is not bugged." I explained to him how the local police had broken into my back door, and I had, on returning from the grocery store with my driver, found two police officers in my house. Joe said to them, "This man is a blind veteran."

One officer said, "We know he is a veteran, we saw army uniforms in his closet." Now what were these officers doing in my closet? Of course I have talked about this matter on the radio, written legislators about it. Like my land phone lines being cut twice in one year, the time is long past when law enforcement/ military is concerned about citizens-- disabled or otherwise. As one sheriff's deputy, and one police sergeant said, "If you are killed, we will have reason to act. "

This CIA agent, alone, divorcing himself from his family, friends, and associates, knew the entire story. He knew the loneliness of serving country. He new the companionship of good books. He said as he walked around my house, filled with books, "Why would a blind man have so many books."

I said, "I just like to feel them, to know that there is this much knowledge in the world."

We discussed the slippery slide of our country into oblivion. I told him how my mind had been wrung out from my knowledge of subliminal perception. My early bouts with  MKULTRA (mind control, during the Korean War). We knew how easily mind control has turned the people of a democratic republic into Zombies-- docile with the use of chloride and fluoride in their drinking water systems, just as the Nazis had known and practiced. We discussed the problems of national security (this was before the times of Edward Snowden, WikiLeaks, the NSA, the gay agenda, and when attitudes towards other governments have come out of the closet). He said, "No longer can I have any contact with other agents. As is with all agencies of government, you do not recognize the enemy. Every agency has been infiltrated. I am taking survival method skills at the nearby Marine base, but my presence here is wrapped in absolute secrecy. I cannot know anyone. I share this with you, because a blind man cannot identify me. I can no longer walk through the diplomat's entrance at immigration, show a card to enter a plain, and can no longer meet another agent, or get instructions even at a gay bath house, as I did in the past. Gay bath houses are now overrun by congressmen and bureaucrats."

It is a matter of routine that an agent must be shot "in the line of duty," to keep everyone alert (this writer can well imagine what is now happening with drones and satellites).  

During that evening, and since, as he has called me from different areas of the world, we share our unfailing faith in Jesus Christ, our constant companion. This man knew salvation, redemption, and sanctification. As he said to me, "Wood, hay and stubble will burn, but gold and precious stones will remain." (1 Co 3:11-15)

Salvation, forgiveness and the love of God is not a matter of arithmetics. The military veteran and the government secret agents, give something that the average man or woman will never understand-- something for which there is no monetary value attached, there is no computer able to calculate genuine patriotism. The average person on earth does not realize that life on earth, for most of them, is just a waiting room for hell. This writer's goal, and I believe this CIA agent's goal, is to cross over into heaven and know the presence of Jesus. I don't need gold streets or mansions. I just need Christ's presence and relationship forever. The matter of the American republic is no longer a matter of survival. Like the diseases, for which Big Medicine and Big Pharma are engaged, there is no cure, just treatment-- management of the disease. The writer C.S. Lewis told us long ago that most people do not realize that they are in a battle against darkness. Most church members, US citizens, do not realize that they are on the battle front, wrestling against the powers of darkness. (Eph 6:12) Most people think that they have only lost their dignity, embarrassed by same-sex marriage, the murder of babies, chastisement with their own healthcare. Wake up! You have lost your freedom. You are being blackmailed by the heathen forces of Satan, concerned only with your vote, concerned only with the picking of your pockets.

Thanksgiving, 2013

Count Your Blessings, Hymn

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

- Johnson Oatman, Jr.

This writer and world traveler has shared many events in articles, particularly about holidays in foreign countries. Thanksgiving is a very particularly-American celebration. In my lifetime, it has been overshadowed by the paganism of Halloween and the excesses of Christmas.

I was in Khartoum, Sudan, Africa. I remember it as if it were yesterday, being at the largest hotel in the city, right on the banks of the Nile. Of course every Muslim country is dreary and colorless-- you never see a flower (God's beauty). The housing, clothing, exteriors and interiors of buildings, is very drab. In fact, I do not believe, that in all the Muslim countries I have visited in my life, that I ever saw someone smile or laugh.

There were several other Americans in the hotel on Thanksgiving. Evidently, they wanted to impress us Americans by serving us a Thanksgiving meal. We Americans were all sitting together at one table, in one dining room, when they brought in some birds of some type, which they had prepared. The legs were sitting straight up, pointed at the ceiling,  and the outsides were parched. Of course I had no appetite for this food-- in fact, in most foreign countries, I would eat around the fringes of everything in an attempt to discern what I was eating. I lost much weight in my travels.

As I have stated many times, you are Christian, with everything that Christianity entails-- daily thankfulness. You are American, with everything that that entails. Not I am an American or I am a Christian.

The apostle Paul tells us about thankfulness in his letter to Colossia:

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:15-17

We live in a profane world, in a broken culture-- in entropy, slipping and sliding towards chaos. The most difficult question I have ever been asked, in a long life of interaction with both believers and nonbelievers, is, "If God is love, why all the suffering in the world-- poverty, disability, war, criminal activity?" Particularly, the question is, "Why do good people suffer-- especially innocent children?" And we could just as easily ask, "Why did God not spare his own Son from flogging and crucifixion?", or "Why did God allow slavery-- the most inhuman activity in world history?" Think of the slave breakers, the inhuman activity in the hearts of some humans, to be able to beat a slave daily, until they were in absolute submission-- much like the mule skinner, beating a mule or horse into absolute submission. We must allow-- in our thinking, in our psyche-- harsh truth, the fact that God allows Satan, not only to tempt us, but to abuse us. Never forget, God is boss. He is in charge, and Satan can only go as far as He lets him. 

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 4:15

In this season of Thanksgiving, we should be so thankful that life is more than temptation and abuse, warfare and criminal conduct. I can still see my grandmother getting out her glasses, from a case, on which was the name, "Dr. Edward Bizzel." I knew Dr. Bizzel, and the joy he had given my grandmother through glasses, with which she could read her Bible. But, what made her more elated than her joy at being able to read her Bible, was having her own grandson be able to write her prescription. From that day, she never stopped talking about her glasses, prescribed by her oldest doctor-grandson.  At this time, we can be thankful that we are producers, not moochers. My grandmothers were thankful that they never had a child or grandchild who ended up in jail or depended on Welfare.

On one of my last visits to one aunt, who was totally crippled by arthritis, and unable to get around or do anything, she talked about her childhood, drawing water in a bucket from a well, to wash clothes. She said, "The trials of my childhood, those of my parents and grandparents, seem so trivial when, with Thanksgiving, I realize that every one of my nieces and nephews have graduated from college, have good jobs, and are responsible and productive citizens. But most of all, that they know Jesus Christ as their savior, and every one-- without exception-- are living lives that make me very proud."

Thanksgiving is more than overeating, spending at "super centers," and waiting in line to get a special deal. African American people, and even slaves, were once described as, "The happiest people on the face of the Earth." The happiest people on the face of the Earth, should be those who have productive lives-- lives of encouragement. Mark Twain said, "Politeness costs so little." One who is thankful, long-suffering, and encouraging to others, is a testimony to Thanksgiving.

Washington Follies

Washington Follies

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)

            This writer, world traveler, was in the country of Mali, Africa. We have heard much about Mali, the destruction of the ancient temples there in recent years. I had visited the Dogon country, probably the world's oldest continuous civilization. My guide had become ill, still in the hotel in Bamako (capital and largest city in Mali). So that I would not miss any flights, he had sent me to the airport by cab. The Mali air service had only two planes, I was in one of them heading for Johannesburg, South Africa. The two planes ran into one and other on the one airstrip of the country.

            The airport terminal was about the size of a family garage. And as in so many of these third world countries, natives filling the place, watching the only excitement of their world, taking up all of the seats. I was sitting on the floor, in one corner, of the air terminal, with my camera bag and two suitcases... dejected, discouraged. One young man had pestered me to death, trying to sell me a homemade sword, he did not realize I was sightless.

            There have been many times of desperation in my life, and I breathe these words to God. "It has been a good life, you wanted me to experience the world. I believe it is time to call it quits. I can't go any farther, here in this black continent, alone." About that time, God said as clearly as I could talk to anyone, "Get on your feet, I'm not through with you yet." About the same time, the airport manager took me by the arm and said, "Come with me doctor. I have a plane ready for you." He led me to the tarmac and to the plane, my only stop, to buy the sword. The engines of that small plane SUNG "great is thy faithfulness". All the way to Johannesburg, the terminal manager there, a huge place, met the plane, led me off, and on to my connecting flight to London. As I crossed the large terminal, I heard one young girl say to her mother "Look mama, there is a blind man with a sword. I wonder who he is mad with." Thank God, there have been good times in my life, when the sunlight of God's love and care rested on me. There is a Bob Dylan song, 'The Times They Are A-Changin', " Come senators, Congressmen, Please heed the call, Don't stand at the doorway, Don't block up the hall" There was a time when I encouraged individuals and groups not to give up on my country. Certainly, if it was worth giving my eyes, worth the hard work, and taxes which I continue to pay, worth the allegiance of my ancestors, who first landed on the continent in 1677. Just think what it was like for them to cross the Atlantic in a small, rickety ship (The Good Ship Kent). Sparse food, lack of basic hygiene comforts. Then, think of building shelter from the weather. They having to bring every tool, hammer, saw, weapon, cooking pot from England. They must have believed that the freedom afforded by the shores of this nation was worth their efforts.

            200 years later, both homes of my maternal and paternal grandparents, I still remember as a child, sitting on the bench at the dining room table. Chairs were very expensive, all furniture hand made. The many children in the homes were brought up to sit on benches, and I felt so grown up sitting between two of my father's brother's, my uncles. I later remember WW2, these uncles, like my own father, having gone to the war. My old grandparents, attempting with hired hands, keeping the farming operations going (there were hired people because the blacks did not go to war, and many of the poor white men could not possibly pass the physical). It was during WW2 that the nation finally came to grips with the health condition of it's people. The majority of white youth, both urban and rural, could not pass the physical exams. This is why the WPA (Works Progress Administration) was organized. Feeding, conditioning, young boys to perform public works jobs. And even sending a part of their earnings back home to their destitute parents.

            There was a time when the average citizen, such as your writer, could write letters to federal and state legislators... even your own congressman. Your elected representatives do not answer letters anymore. There was a time when these power brokers- opinion molders actually believed in the American Spirit. I once attended the Foliage Bougere in Paris, a make believe world of falsity. Such has become Washington D.C.- make believe- falsity. There was a time when real Christians, real patriots, would have laughed at cash for clunkers, midnight basketball, Obama Healthcare. Where abortions are provided for young girls, but not hearing aids for the elderly.

            Is it possible, as was speculated by historians, that some humanity escaped the great flood of Noah's time, underground, giving us a race of people, a mystery population- strange people, with which the world must deal. Is it possible, that the Nazi's built large underground fortresses at the South Pole? Speculation about this has persisted for many years... UFOs, strangulations of the world's financial conditions by the Illuminati. Is it possible that we have a satanic group now hovering over the world, giving directions for everything. Slowly conquering what is left of capitalism and Christianity. We know that fortresses have been built in many places, that 250,000 Nazis were never accounted for, that much of Hitler's brain power was openly brought to this country. It simply is not possible that America has lost all it's common sense-sanity so rapidly... loss of small farms, factory farms, a corporate farming system, such insane practices as insecticides in seed. If you owned a high price race horse, a much pedigree dog, would you feed these animals the type GMO food stuffs that your children are fed at the school house, the fast food house, or even your house? Like animal food shipped to this nation from China, with a filler of plastic products. Don't you know the animal body can not digest- utilizes synthetics?

            America has become a profane- broken culture, and most people don't seem to care. If you have ten people at your dining room table, each of these people, from the youngest to the oldest, owes the American government a debt of $53,000. The politicians, and those who contribute the huge donors, electing them. The millions of bureaucrats appointed by them will survive any financial disaster, because, as in any follies group, they are all dancing to the same tune. It is only those of us who do not know the dance steps, who still believe in sins ruined and Christ's redemption, who still believe in hard work and the sense of accomplishment. That will survive the greatest test, the test that will scare performers to death. The day of judgment, when God will take over.

Shellac

Shellac

"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer."

(Psalm 19:14)

        This writer remembers the invention, first use of plastics. Before plastics, real paper cups, paper plates, paper packaging, paper over your dry cleaning. This writer remembers the invention and first use of zippers. Before zippers, snaps on women's and children's clothing, buttons on your trousers. Could one ever have imagined plastic storage bags with zippers? Even the poorest, those on welfare, have things now that were not available in the WHITE HOUSE- Palaces of the world, in my youth. It seems impossible, but today's welfare citizen receives more money from the government than the disabled, combat veteran.

        We live in a world of Shellac, a bright covering over everything, even the 'dark and ugly'. Present two items to a baby, one shiny, the other dull. The baby will always reach for the shiny. This writer saw many beautiful, old, real wood, hand made antiques, tossed in order to have furniture of shiny veneer. One furniture manufacturer told me, 'I can take any cheap wood, and make it look like any expensive wood... pecan, cherry, mahogany, and then add a coat of Shellac.' One funeral home director told me that an expensive casket only must last a few days... cheap wood, covered with veneer and shellac, cheap satin interior. He said, it is all a matter of perception, not reality. The average buyer does not appreciate quality, it is all visual. Paint, shellac, covers a multitude of sins, illusion, not elimination. At the beginning of World War 2, there were only 60 men in what is now the US Air Force (The Air Force was then known as the Army Flying Service). Learning areal warfare, you would send a plane over a certain area to see how important-well defended it was. If there were a lot of flac (exploding shells), you would know that you were over an important target.

        In today's world, state controlled news media, media bought off by the big bankers, who control everything, including the depths of the media and their advertisers. Unless you are one of the "good ol' boys", you must be very careful about what you say. For instance, big pharmacy supports the democrat party. And the democrat party has a history of Shellac. This writer was born and raised in the poverty of the country side, not exposed to the idiosyncrasies-ambiguities of the real world. I believed in God, honor, country, the value of hard work, and honesty. I never knew about the artificial glitz of networking, "who you know, not what you know". I believe that character determined destiny. It was as a single, young army officer that I discovered the real method of advancement. It was the young, officer's wives, flirting with the big brass at the officer's club, which got you promoted. Even back then, 60 years ago, when homosexuality was in the closet, the young-gay-good looking, male officer knew how to handle orders from his superiors (orders- placement, location). My first orders were changed by superiors for the benefit of a young, gay, officer. He got my orders changed in order for him to go to a hospital in New York City, mine to Korea. It has always been Shellac, a veneer of make believe, that determines the course of things. It is the sizzle, not the stake: the colorful package, not what is on the inside.

        The model of vaccination, giving the organism a small dose of a disease in order for antibodies against the disease to be built up by the organism... functional immunology. To protect the composure of the vaccine, mercury and aluminum are used. We know the effects of metals on the body, certainly your dentist does. I remember hearing one young medical officer asking a well known immunologist, "Why not just expose everyone to the germs in a poor section of town? Why not just make sure everyone handles dirty money?" It is known that fiat money contains most of the world's germs. The good doctor said, "It is all a matter of control." ...you carefully control the dosage in a syringe. Not so dining and dancing in a germ infested area, or handling anything with many germs. Ex. think of the germ laden blankets given to the American Indians, which practically wiped them out.

        We know those who get the flu vaccine, have just as much flu as those who do not get the shots. We know that some of the healthiest children come from homes, religion or otherwise, who never received any shots at all. We know that giving immunization shots to small babies probably causes more problems (autism, etc) than the prevention of anything. Think of the girls killed because of the insistence of vaccination for HPV. It is truly amazing that people for thousands of years, our ancestors, living through every type of disaster, survived with out vaccinations. But, the veneer-shellac- coating of acceptability-responsibility (parents deemed abusive if not yielding to big pharma, big medication's admonitions) unwilling to accept criticism of society. Read, study, what it is all about. Don't be a victim of popularity. Remember, the taxpayer pays for the disease, created by others. Too many Christian people- believers in the healing power of God, have sung, victory in Jesus, as they have yielded to the Satanic forces of the world. Too many pastors have shuffled, distressed people, to Godless psychologists for counseling. Surely these pastors should know that the first thing the anti-God counselor psychologist is going to tell the person: forget your super-natural belief system. The Christian church, far too long, has let Godless atheism dictate our actions. Madison Avenue techniques have encouraged the 20th century church to make a beggar out of God... to use their techniques in raising funds for God's work. Today's mega-churches are products of "bigger is better" philosophy, not theology. The Christian church does not need directions from Satan. The shellac of drums and drama, jive music (self-help-Dale Cargenie-platitudes) will never replace the iterate- sovereign word of God (written by him for our every instruction). The great hymns of the faith. This writer has known those who are physically sick, those who are distressed, those in despair, to be healed and revitalized, just by reading the gospel of John every day for a week, just by taking a hymn book and reading the old hymns of the Christian faith. The world offers glitter and polished glass.

        This writer once was amazed to find that an antique frame contained an old print which my 'hired' eyes had believed to be an original. The clever antique dealer had coated the inside of the glass, covering the print with shellac, making the print look old. There is nothing new under the sun. Only old, vital, lessons, which the young need to learn and which we older people should become revitalized.

 

Temple of Science

Temple of Science

                                    "Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all."

                                                            -John F. Kennedy

            This writer is computer illiterate. When I was young, the type writer was a big event. I learned to type, being the editor of a professional scientific journal for 8 years, and how well I remember the carbon paper. Of course, I would have learned to use a computer, but now I can afford to have two people in my office using the computer while I dictate, etc. I well remember the first time I heard about the activities of a computer. I said, "Do you mean, that there is a machine that could alphabetize and catalog all my books (for many years I have been an antiquarian, book collector, and seller). I want that machine." Of course, this is just a small fraction of what the modern day computer system can do. Collecting, analyzing, storing data from every library, every focus of attention, from all over the world? Just think, in the pocket of my shirt, a system called a cell phone, into which I can talk, connects me with anyone, anywhere. A system in a telephone makes superior photographs, answers questions, reads newspapers, and even the bible to me.

            I was speaking before a conference of ministers, when a previous speaker had talked about the magnificence of the computer. I said, "With all the scientific splendor, miracles, of the computer, it does not even compare one iota with the magnificence- splendor of Jehovah-God. I have traveled to both the Arctic and Antarctic, top and bottom of the world, covered with 4 million square miles of glaciers, made up of snow flakes. Not two snowflakes that have ever fallen the same. God designed each snow flake different, each grain of sand on the beaches of the world, different. Each human being chosen by him, different. Can the scientific temple, a computer machine, begin to match the science of the human body?"

            The computer is now what we did call science fiction, just as Dick Tracy talking into a button on his coat. God knew that all these developments, this technology, was in the pipeline of his creation. He awaited man's ability to comprehend it. He established his rights with just one tree in a perfect world, 'don't touch that tree'. Man choose the spirit of disobedience and death then, has never ceased to do so. The only grace you will ever find in this world is in Jesus Christ, and still, the world has not chosen the spirit of life through Jesus Christ- still chooses the spirit of death, still chooses disease through poor life habits. Still chooses Satan, and chooses to disbelieve God.

            God supplies all our needs according to his riches and glory. (Philippians 4:19). In Mesopotamia the need for writing started... book keeping, debits and credits. Later, can you even imagine the difficulty in mathematically using Roman numerals? The so called Arabic writing system, numbers, started in India, but went around the world, bringing on a surge in mathematics. Books have been written about the need for accumulating data, information about everything. Just think, time zones were not established, Greenwich meaning zero, until 1884. Maps, navigation charts, are new to the world. Now we have GPS systems, which locate you anywhere in the world. Could one have ever imagined a Google system, which leads you to any accumulated data, can show you an image at any geographical location? Technology has changed the world, but human nature has never changed. With all our inventions (laziness, not necessity, is the mother of invention), our accumulated data, we have more warfare, disputes, than ever... even within one's own nation. This writer, traveling across Russia, on the trans-Siberian railroad, ten time zones, everything was held to Moscow time. In this information age, man's ability to accumulate data, polls can accurately predict political winners. World's cash register can provide information for advertising targets. The stock market ticker-tape, totally useless. The financial world, securities markets, etc, conquered by technology. In a world of data collection, the healing art's sciences have advanced, but more to the benefit of greedy pharmaceutical bandits, than sick-needful patients. Don't tell me that the "zillions" of dollars spent in research via largest of foundations and taxpayers could not find a cure for anything if the profit-bottom line of producers were not involved. I don't want a doctor, or health care person, who has never been sick. I do not want a preacher who has never sinned and found forgiveness. I do not want a business man who has never had empathy shown to him at a time of need. The heart must be broken for the world of our God of grace and glory to enter.

            General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, used a new word 'compassionate' in describing the Christian attitude to a lost and sick world. Another Englishman, David Livingston, wrote Christians in Scotland to send him other to help for his mission work in Africa. They wrote back, that many young people wanted to go and assist him, please inform about the best roads, with which to find him. Livingston wrote back that if they needed roads, they should not come. Those who are sick need a physician. I have heard the great choir at St. Thomas's Episcopal church on 5th Avenue in New York City. They are trained voices. You can tell the difference when you hear the Brooklyn tabernacle choir.. a choir made up of sinned sick- addicts, etc, who have been redeemed and truly have SOMEONE and SOMETHING to sing about.

            God has watched, paid careful attention, to his creation. He was watching the longest serving, Old Testament king (55 years), Manasseh of Judah, son of Godly parents. He saw Manasseh lead an entire nation astray, saw him return to God before his death. Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon said, "Don't depend on a deathbed conversion." It is hard for some people to understand, but God is in charge. He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy (Romans 9:15). The computer knows nothing about data collecting-analyzing, compared to almighty God. I urge you to have his holy spirit for your existence.

            This writer will have many questions for God. This past week, an ectopic pregnancy, my grandson and his wife lost my first great grandchild. Just think, in a day of abortions, so many unwanted children, a baby so wanted-already loved, by parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. Your computer can give you much information, but you can trust Jehovah- God of grace and glory, who knows the end as well as the beginning. 

11-12-13 Epiphany

"The more things change, the more they stay the same."

- Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr

Throughout this writer's long life, he witnessed the epiphany of old people, amazed and dizzy with new concepts and technological developments they simply could not understand. He witnessed his own very smart grandmother waving and trying to talk to the people on the television screen. Home from college one Christmas, attending prayer services with his parents at our old country church (built by great grandparents of both Mother and Father in 1874). The prayer leader asked for concerns needing prayer. One lady asked that they pray for one of the characters in a television soap opera who was going to the hospital the next day. This is how real the soap opera and its personalities were to her. I think of the young children I have seen in a play pen, the only place a mother could control a rambunctious infant. The child learned early to cry or throw a fit in the pen, restrained by the sides of the pen, although he had his toys, and knew that his mother was close by. Man learned early in life to throw off the "fetters" of boundaries. In Mesopotamia he learned the necessity for writing and record keeping. In Egypt, our earliest need for accounting-- probably the record keeping of Joseph-- gaining control of the Egyptian people, their money, their animals and their land. We know that Joseph procured the latest developments in water preservation. We know he stored Egyptian wealth in vaults all the way to Babylon (this proved beneficial after the children of Israel left Egypt). We know that the Great Library at Alexandria in Egypt contained manuscripts with most of the world's knowledge. It is significant that Christians burned down this library.

Today, more data is used each day than 5 stacks of paper reaching to the moon. Today's world of data is accurate in predicting every seat in every airplane. It has completely revolutionized the securities market. With algorithm's we can predict political and weather outcome. We have paid for the noose around our neck. We have braided the rope that will hang us. We must have the humility to realize that our lives no longer have a psychological, philosophical or even spiritual vent. Everything is numbers. No longer are we concerned with the why or when of life, only the what. We are controlled by numbers and predictions. There were 1 billion people involved in the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic-- 1/2 billion died. Already, starting with the first Bird Flu epidemic in China, we can accurately predict the rate of spread, and related deaths surrounding an outbreak. Great knowledge came to us through the telescope, then the microscope.

You must put flesh and blood on the ancients-- even our own ancestors. Just think what they could have done with a knowledge of microbiology and DNA. Think what our grandparents could have done with a computer, Google-ing 3 Billion searches per day. My great grandfather, elder P.T. Lucas, who's family owned almost half of one Eastern North Carolina county, was so convicted and convinced of the need to bring the gospel of Christ to the people of the area, that he left the comforts of a fine farm home and traveled to the surrounding areas by horse and buggy-- in a time of very few roads, maps and no electric power or telephone lines. How did he know the direction in which to guide his horse?

Today, this writer, P.T. Lucas' aging Grandson, who has been involved in an internet business for many years, can upload an image, with a description and price into his computer and the image, and everything about the article for sale, can be seen around the world-- even the number of people looking at the object. This is the modern way of doing business. You shop and bargain via the air around us. The prices of airline tickets and the abatements of warfare are all a product of data deifications.

Eighty-seven nations of the world now have drones. Can we even imagine what future inventions might bring-- the killing of world leaders, blowing up of strategic bridges, the dropping of weaponized biologicals. Does anyone actually believe that nations, such as Tunisia or the Ivory Coast, are capable of manufacturing drones? These nations cannot put together a bicycle. Greedy, money-hungry, military-industrial factories, such as American Lockheed and Boeing are fattening their bottom lines by building and selling these weapons of mass destruction to these 87 nations. In nanotechnology, everything gets smaller. Our lives are being controlled by nanotechnology and now there is more information on one cell phone than in the earliest explored modules, such as the one going to the moon.

At Oxford University in England, there is an internet institute. Children, just out of the playpen, learn to use the computer. If Satan had wanted to bring a sewage line into your house, with pornography and every conceivable whim or vice, he would have designed a computer. Has the computer's regulation of your life and its activities, actually contributed that much to your happiness or your general welfare? This writer so remembers the walls of card catalogues the shelves of books in the "stacks" at Wilson Library at UNC Chapel Hill. You sought knowledge and it stayed with you. I can tell you, as one who specialized in the eye/ vision that light impulses leave everything, register on the retina of the eye, travel through the nerve structure of the eye and brain, and then are interpreted in the Calcarine Cortex of the brain at the very back of the head. This is knowledge and learning. It is not transferable to a nano-chip.

God knew about nanotechnology from the beginning. It is in the essence of life, placed in animals and plants. He knew the supernatural from the natural-- man's battle with Satan, demons, and powers of darkness. With all our wisdom has come wanton-ess and decadence. Now comes survival. I have just learned of a new way to survive when the grid goes down (no electricity) from a nuclear incident (the world and everything around you, poisoned). It is called a twig stove. You take a large metal coffee can, and with tin snips, create an opening in the bottom. Start a fire with dryer lint in a toilet paper roll and twigs, put a pan on top and you can heat water and food. Remember that matches were not invented until 1805. My early ancestors, who landed on the shores of America in 1677, were accustomed to carrying hot coals with them everywhere in order to have fire. They cooked in one pot, in a chimney they had built. While you program your spam filters, attempting to cut out, and not consider such articles such as this, remember that God set guidelines and established His rights. He wants you to trust Him, not the wisdom of the computer.

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, "He is THE ONE WHO CATCHES THE WISE IN THEIR CRAFTINESS"

1 Corinthians 3:19

Honor and Qualifiers on Veteran's Day

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

By Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

Take up our quarrel with the foe
To you, from failing hands, we throw
The torch: be yours to hold it high
If ye break faith with us who die,
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields

 

The iron wedge used on the farm, which now acts as a doorstop at his beach house.

This writer, born on a dirt road in poverty-stricken Eastern North Carolina (no power, phone, or water lines) would cut and split wood to burn in the furnaces of three tobacco curing barns, and the wood burning cook and wood burning heating stoves. The same wedge that split the logs, was also used to balance and level. Life's greatest mystery, to the unbeliever, but known to God, is life's inequities. The human mind is incomprehensible. The crowning glory, neurology, sets us above other animals. A pseudo-scientific profession of psychology, mind study, started in the 20th century. In my lifetime, there has been a bombardment of Intelligent Quotients (IQ), polls, contests, political correctness (government and media attempting to control the thinking of everyone.) There is an addiction for popularity, even Christian churches making a beggar of God-- playing games with God--, and actually believing in a spiritual world of supernatural, that one can fool God.

The scariest scripture in the bible is in Psalm 98:

Before the LORD, for He is coming to judge the earth; He will judge the world with righteousness And the peoples with equity.

Psalm 98:9

The old graveyards had as many short graves as long graves-- children and babies who never knew life and older people, so poor that there was no tombstone, or record of them ever having lived. What are the qualifiers? Was there less grief over 100 years ago, with no refrigeration, sanitation, or antibiotics? Children died from food poisoning, mothers from childbirth. What qualifies today's lackadaisical populous, with science-fiction technology, to think that they are more qualified for a lavish lifestyle, more than the hardworking God-fearing ancestor of yesteryear? What qualifies a nation to so inflict punishment on the world, so that mothers and children in Pakistan, and other places, would rather see a dreary day that a sunny day, because drones don't drop bombs on dark days as they do on days with a beautiful, blue sky.

When the first time the word "worship" is used in God's word, Abraham, the first Jew, and richest man in the world, having a son after the age of 100, was approaching Mt. Moriah to offer his only son, Isaac, as a sacrifice. Bible history, gospels, and epistles thrive around the story of this "worth-ship"-- one man's total commitment to God. Two thousand years later, we see Jehovah God's total commitment with His only son in sacrifice on another hill, Calvary. The qualifications for giving "worth-ship" are established. God, with the perfect Garden of Eden, established His rights and authority forever by saying, "Don't touch that tree." There are some things we cannot have. We cannot have it all. Creator God qualifies his creation and creatures.

Recently, this totally-blind, 100% disabled, service-connected, medical officer veteran, who worked, as very few men have worked, to get the schooling and training for my military service, found, as have so many, just how much our government hates us. After 50 years of asking for a player/ instrument that would read books to me (I've never even received a white cane or talking watch from the VA). I wept as I enjoyed this new addition to my life-- thinking how much I could have enjoyed this service over the years. My treatment is nothing compared to the 265,000 buried on foreign soil, wrapped only the flag which they served. At a time when the divorce rate among all citizens is approaching 60%, when last year $4 Billion in tax dollars were refunded to people with false identification, we remember the wives and children of men and women who never knew parenting or home life, simply because they were serving their country and fellow citizens, who in many cases, never appreciate them.

What qualifies politicians, pastors, and power brokers to judge the parents who have given their precious children in military service for your country.

Vietnam was the first war where the dead American military men and women were returned to the homeland. One family, their only son David killed in Vietnam, asked this Army Officer to lead the funeral procession down the center aisle of St. Paul's Methodist Church. I followed directly behind the pastor, Dr. Leon Couch, who was reciting aloud, in his marvelous voice, Psalm 23. I said to David's mother what I had heard my mother say, "'You never have a child to lose.' But, you know the forwarding address of your Christian son."

On Veteran's Day, and everyday, those of us who are still around, still paying taxes, still working, and still honoring God, family and country, are embarrassed to think that anyone would not think that we would not do it all over again.

Consider the Blessing of Grace

Consider the Blessing of Grace

"Grace, grace, God's grace,

 Grace, grace, God's grace,

 Grace that is greater than all our sins."

                                                -'Marvelous Grace of Our Loving Lord' Hymn

            This writer has always felt like he was on the outside looking in. God of mercy and grace, made arrangements for this writer to travel the world (8 around the world trips, every continent, passport stamped in 157 countries). Through out the world, I never saw human beings working any harder, living in more poverty, than those I knew in Eastern North Carolina... the sweat and hard work of the tobacco fields, the picking of cotton, pseudo-slave labor in cotton mills. In this world of hard work, there was not much temptation or opportunity for sin.

            This totally blind, 100% disabled, service, medical officer, veteran of the Korean conflict, in the sunset years of my life, looks back at the grace that brought US this far. Living alone, preparing my food, every time I use the microwave, I think of my mother and grandmothers, using a wood burning cook stove, and yet, they thought that was nice. They knew how their ancestors had cooked in large iron pots over an open fire in a fire place ( I still have the large iron cooking pot, probably brought over from England, used by my ancestors to cook in a chimney). Every time I take a shower, brush my teeth, and other bodily hygiene, I think of decades of ancestors who never had a real bath.,

            Father down the dirt road from our farm home, crop land owned by my father, giving the mules a rest while I was plowing, I would go across the road to visit with Mrs. Letoria Waddell, who lived in a small house on a small piece of land, which, in some way, had been left to her. She lived alone, totally crippled with arthritis, told me she had never talked on a telephone. She was completely dependent on the Christian charity of others, people like my mother, bringing her some food which she could prepare on her wood stove. The question in this boy's inquisitive mind, then, and even more so now, WHY?

            In the school yard, I was never chosen by the other boys for their ball team. From a small child, I was never athletically gifted. Later, teenager, never chosen by the girls, because most girls like a boy who is mischievous and boisterous (he is so cute... have you ever heard a girl say that?). The meaner the boy, the more the girls love him. Some grown women actually love an abusive, ne'er do well male.

            "Wrestling" (Ephesians 6) Against the powers of darkness in this world, grabbing for every education advantage, graduating from a small county school, 13 in the graduating class, I knew from an early age that I was chosen by God for something much better.

            Disparaged at the university, when I learned that sons of prominence received special treatment. One of my friends was the son of a county judge, the university made sure that he was well cared for... financially- academically. I was always looking towards the fraternity- sorority houses. Wondering just what went on there, with elitist students. At Kenan Stadium, I looked towards the areas where the state's political-financial hierarchy was gathered- "cocktailing", "buffeting" from their high perch, looking down at the peasants, even at a state supported university. WHAT MAKES SOME HUMAN BEINGS CONSIDER THEMSELVES MORE IMPORTANT THAN OTHERS?!? Is money or influence the determining factor?

            6,000 years ago, perfect garden, in a world which God had created, authority was established, God's rights... "the no-no tree". We can not have it all, and, rules were established for everyone, not just a few. In spite of themselves, chosen people of the old testament and new testament, have always spoken for God AND, thankfully, many have lived for God. "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Philippians 1: 21). Nothiningness to somethingness, God created everything, and all created for his glory. For God to be God, he does not need anything, does not need us. This writer has found that most of the elitist of the world, the power brokers, political and financial, so egotistical, so full of themselves, wants God in their image.

            The Ovum of a 14 year old girl, fertilized by the holy spirit of God, and Jesus, putting on a tent of human flesh, walked among us. He preached himself, was either the greatest hoax world has ever known, or he was who he said he was, on Calvary, a Roman Cross, sacrificed for the sins, sicknesses of the world. He did, indeed, rise from the dead (a historic fact which can not be disputed), caused an elliptical- ecclesiastical change in the lives of even those who knew him best. We know little about the life of Jesus from the age 12 to age 30, but we can be sure that he experienced much of the same life challenges as we mortals. His disciples all martyrs. Men will die for truth, but not for a lie. More important than any political power, financial gain, pleasures of this life, to be chosen by God, demonstrating his righteousness before others, and then, at the end of life, knowing the splendor, of eternal closeness, actually being showcased around eternity. Life on this Earth, no matter how important-rich-outstanding you are, not to be compared to the joy found with those who know his grace.

            This writer was on the island of Bali, corrupted by false religions, I had been visiting a "monkey temple", a place where human being worship monkeys, carry nice food to them.. while all around the temple, children are dying from malnutrition. I have stood on the mount of olives, looking over Jerusalem, the many Christian church steeples. Rome, church steeples, the sounds of bells. On this side of the cross, 2,000 years, still so much of the world's population have never heard about the grace of God, and, Western civilization, where the Christian church is responsible for so much prosperity. Many, who do know, just play games with God, never read the book written by him. IF, those who know the saving grace of God, faith in Jesus Christ, were really concerned, the wealth spent on warfare and pleasure would be used to bring everyone to a knowledge of the power and peace of God.

Cults and Culture

90% of Christian faith is just raw courage. Can you even imagine, those who jump to the beat of the music of addiction, political correctness, seduction, which the forces of Satan make so attractive, have faced as they stood up against such forces. Think of Noah, 140 years, building a large ship-boat on dry land when people had never even seen rain. Think of Noah, God having stored male and female of any animal species that he wanted to save along with Noah’s own family in the arc, standing in the doorway of the arc, begging his fellow citizens to escape the ‘wrath’ of God. It was only after the great door of the arc had been closed and sealed by God, that water flowed onto the surface of the Earth, the arc slowly lifted up, the people, even on mountain tops, drowning, that they realized the courage of Noah, realized he was not a nut. Perhaps, a thousand years later, Abraham, drawn-called from ur of the Chaldees, one man, with out a forwarding address, to go 600 miles North, to a promise land God had provided. To free Abraham from idle worship, his father Tyrell(look up), died and was buried just outside present day Damascus, Syria. Abraham moved into a land of cults. 2000 years later, the decedents of Abraham, having been slaves in Egypt for over 400 years, were through a process of God humbling them into wilderness for 40 years, moved into the same area of cults. And so it has been since, the history of one chosen people, the Jews, their relationship with cults. In the fullness of time, “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law” (Galatians 4:4). Jesus, son of God, putting on a tent of human flesh, lived and died a sacrificial death of redemption for us. 2000 years, on this side of the cross, mankind has attempted to find anything and everything to free himself from the claims of the cross. We know that mankind, even those who have never heard the gospel message, have a great desire to worship something or someone grater than themselves. Some carve a figure from a piece of wood, while burning the scrapes of the fire, bow down to the piece of wood, an idle that requires nothing from them. Starting in the 20th century, a ‘new age’ movement, such as Oprah Winfrey and her gang, wants to find some idle message. They could have gone to India and found thousands of Hindu gods and idle worship temples. They could have gone to other Asian nations, and found ‘monkey’ worship temples. Others, power brokers of industry and banking, political hacks, wanting to have their hands close to the treasury of the nation, media moguls, parading out, scan flicks, magazines and lifestyles, sports masters, thinking that a ball or athletic feet or some sort meets their needs... all in a conjured collection of self satisfaction. Wanting the "god" they worship in their image instead of them being in the likeness of God. 

And then, there are the more obvious cults, in a world of broken culture. The one we remember most, the 1978 Jonestown massacre, reverend Jim Jones, self proclaimed disciple of madness, friend of the political demented (Harvey Milk, gay mayor, Jerry Brown, governor, Willy Brown, kingmaker, ect). His cult following of believers, following him to Jonestown, Guiana, 7,000 drinking arsenic in kool-aid, and at the very end, shooting and killing American congressman, Ryn, at the airport, who was investigating the cult. 

Reverend Jones, like today’s Reverend Jackson, and Reverend Sharpden, charlatans, they differ from other radical liberals, such as Oprah, Obama, Pelosi, what they will do IN THEIR OBSESSION WITH MONEY. Once, I sat across the table at lunch from the president of a Christian college… a college to which I had been very finanically generous. He was a fine man, I do believe a saved educator. He told me that he had voted for Obama. I know that I have family members who voted for Obama. These people, Obama voters, supposedly have IQ’s above room temperature. How could any person, Christian or otherwise, vote for a man who promotes abortion (euthanasia, the killing of children), same sex marriage (destruction of the family), ask don’t tell in the military (destruction of a military super power). There are 16,000 school boards in America. Already, they are having to make a decision about mixed bathroom use in their schools, boys going to girl’s bathrooms, etc. 

Beginning with world history, man thinks he is in charge of his life, but he is not. He knows there is a power greater than himself. The Christian believes that such power is the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, sovereign power of Jehovah-God. These cults, new age religions, THINK they want the truth, but they persue the truth just like a theif persues a police officer. The progress of western civilization, indeed, progress, of the world, and everything in it, has been built around this power. So far as we know, there has been no progress-contributions, from the false religions of the Hindus, Buddhists, or Muslims. There were Indian cults-tribes, in North and South America, known for various accomplishments. Some North American Indian braves could ride a pony-horse bare back, full speed, while leaning to the side shooting arrows. Some Indian braves, such accurate hearing, could put an ear to the ground, tell you about a herd of buffalo (number and type) many miles away. God was so offended by the seven cults-sex occupying the promise land, when the children of Israel crossed the Jordan to occupy it, that he instructed them, according to his word, to kill and destroy every one of them and their property. When they refused to do so, entered Mary with them, accepted part of their customs and traditions, they lived to regret it. With our first parents, in the garden of Eden, perfect world, God established his authority (“don’t touch that tree”). Because our first parents choose the spirit of death instead of the spirit of life, we are still victims of our own sinful nature and disobediance, and to the unsaved-those unredeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Subject to the demon power of Satan, his fallen angels of death and dominion, often found in satanic cults. Mass insanity, has never been explicable. We could not understand the selling of fellow human beings before the American civil war, but, it still goes on today, the selling of children into sex slavery, in the Muslim religion, the buying of a wife for one night. 

Oh, the simplicity of the gospel. Sins ruined and Christ's redemption, but, man wants a subsititute, wants to make God in his image. These cults then, now, and always, lead to a broken culture.

The Gestalt of Giving

Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

2 Corinthians 9:7

In an interview with American commentator Charlie Rose, Brazil's richest man, Eike Batista, said "I'm a massive creator of wealth. I expect to be worth $100 billion." THEN he would have been the richest man on the planet, BUT due to misadventures, he has declared bankruptcy. The gestalt of life is keeping everything in perspective-- the sum is greater than the parts. Gestalt is seeing the forest, not the trees.  Like the man who built many barns, "God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?'" (Luke 12:20)

This writer was a youngster during World War II. I was in the military during the Korean Conflict. I so remember my father, all my uncles, male cousins, and neighbors involved in WWII. One of my father's first cousins, cousin Will, a large land and farm owner, did not have a son to go to war. He had been blessed with daughters. The community will never forget his words: "If the war lasts a little longer, I will be able to wallpaper my barn with twenty dollar bills." The desire for wealth is not new. It is as old as mankind. Yet every time you pass a cemetery or funeral home, you realize just how uncertain life really is. You've put on your socks this morning, but the mortician may take them off tonight. THEN, after all your grabbing and getting, your immortal soul is all that remains.

This day we learn about the 113 African women and children who perished from thirst in the Sahara dessert, trying to escape the tyranny of that continent, and even if they had reached the North African coast, so many of these African Christians have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea. Think of the joy involved if those with great wealth had used a certain part of that wealth to bring a better personhood and way of life to those who have so little.

In America we got the idea, about 100 years ago, that it was up to the Christian church to alleviate suffering in the world. We made a beggar of God-- churches and televangelists begging and selling to bring in funds, while proclaiming that God loves a cheerful giver. So much of the funds given by committed Christians are going into extravagance (lifestyles of preachers, opulent building programs). The gestalt of the big program is the hypocrisy of the believers. 31% of people who call themselves Christians have not attended a church service in six months, not thinking of the 54 million children killed in abortions since 1973, the abomination of same-sex marriage, and the destruction of the family.

Surely most Christians should have seen, years ago, that government control of news media would lead to government control of thought. Parents, if no one else, should have learned that the endless time spent in training children, if nothing more than good manners, is completely lost at the government schoolhouse. It costs more to send a child to public school, than it costs, just a few years ago, when this writer was in college, to attend college. Parents who love their children, who want the best for their children, including a spiritual identity, are willing to pay the excessive taxation for schools, for which they receive nothing, and keep their own children at home to be home schooled. This is the ultimate in cheerful giving. You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.

For 6,000 years, since God placed man on this earth, we have seen men climb over one another to claim preeminence, mostly in power or wealth. Starting in the garden, everything was perfect. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, enjoyed the very presence of God in their lives. God has established His authority, His preeminence. Man was given the Spirit of Life, but chose the Spirit of Death-- all because he wanted it all. God specified to him that there were some things he could not have. He said, "Don't touch that tree." Man then, and today, wants it all. At the end of life, if he lives to be 75 years of age, he has lived for about 657,000 hours. The only important thing for a man to consider is if he has been chosen, called, and drawn by God.

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.

John 6:44

At the end, riches, letters after your name, power, and DNA make no difference. You cannot buy another second. Only what you have given can be taken with you. This is the true gestalt of giving-- something for which most people, even Christians, have lost sight.

When I was a boy, living on the farm, the farm-work animals were mules. The mules hooves had to be trimmed, otherwise the mule would not be able to walk. The mules did not like this procedure. A blacksmith usually cut the hooves on horses feet and put iron shoes on them. My father had a twitch, which he put on the mule's upper lip, attached to a wood handle. It was my job to hold the handle and twist the mule's lip, to control it while the feet were trimmed. In the supernatural plan of God, in which He put a tent of human flesh on His own son, sending Him to Earth to dwell among us, we were shown the right way of life. We know the Truth of forgiving, as well as giving. God often puts a twitch on us through sickness, hardship, or disability, to get our attention. The Christian life is not impossible, just tough. Jesus showed us the way, the Truth and the life. (John 14:7)