Soul Searching

Soul Searching

"Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day [is] the evil thereof" (Matthew 6:34).

            Evel Knievel, dare devil thrill rider, Guinness Book of World Records, having broken more bones than any other human being and still lived (433). In his career he attempted 75 RAMP TO RAMP motorcycle jumps. In 1974 he failed to jump across the Snake River Canyon. Before he died in 2007, when we think of soul searching, this writer believes this dare devil maniac made the most miraculous testimony one can hear,  

"I don't know what in the world happened. I don't know if it was the power of prayer or God himself, but it just reached out, either while I was driving or walking down the sidewalk or sleeping, and it just—the power of God in Jesus just grabbed me. … All of a sudden, I just believed in Jesus Christ."

            No psychiatrist in the world has been able to explain the dare devil mentality. Just this week, Caleb Moore, failed to convert a flip off a 70-foot RAMP with his 450-pound snow mobile, in critical condition. The vehicle appeared to strike him on the head leaving him in a state of shock, paralyzed, the prognosis is not good. Horseback rider, tennis player, swimmer Joni Tada became paralyzed from the neck down after diving into the Chesapeake Bay. A long recovery period, with all the doubts, fears, trauma of body and mind which goes into such a recovery, she learned to paint holding a brush in her teeth, paintings which she sells. Through her mission "Joni and Friends," she preaches, sings and encourages others who are disabled. The man dictating this article is a totally blind, 100% disabled, service connected medical officer veteran of the Korean War era. In speaking to disabled, "It is not what a person does when everything is wonderful, it is what a person does when everything is bad."

            Everyday, almost every way, accident, virus', some happening, unexplainable, without rhyme or reason, a man or woman becomes disabled, life totally and forever changed in the space of a few seconds, minutes or hours.

            WHAT THEN? Do you sit around and cry and feel sorry for yourself, a time for soul searching? Mad at the world, mad at healthy people and one ditch you do not want to fall into, one in which I had a real wrestling match with Satan (Ephesians 6:12), having worked so hard, so much discipline, getting through eight years of professional education (brutal self denial-frugality, etc.), jumping through every hoop, academic boards, all the fight and fury to defend this nation and then come out in my condition and the military not give me so much as a white cane. The plight of the veteran is beyond description, like the American tax payer, the hard working-responsible citizenry who built this nation, like the Christian church, all rejected, even despised in the rapid rise of the communist state-culture. It is a hard pill to swallow, thrown in our faces by the secular-state controlled news media, heroes of the world, those basking off the welfare state...entitlement greed. Their votes, even their souls, purchased by politicians.

            For those interested in soul searching, those knowing what Blaise Pascal meant when he said, "There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.” History is replete with those, both biblical Old Testament and New Testament patriots and saints who filled their vacuum with God. Others have sought that supernatural spirit elsewhere. Man is born with a conscience-soul. In many cases because of their evil ways, difficult to believe so. Adam chose the spirit of death instead of the spirit of life. From the creation until 5,000 B.C, scripture tells us that man was totally evil, "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).

            God did not give up on man, his chief creation. Noah and his family, the animals he chose to save, the arc above the drowning waters of the earth, man procreated the earth again and we have a history recorded in The Bible of one nation, the Jews, and the gentiles as they came into a relationship with the Jewish nation. Starting with one tree in the garden paradise of earth, God established his rights, his laws about everything. He gave us much, including the provision of eternal life, but through his laws, through the atonement of his son Jesus, we have certain parameters, we can not have it all. 

            Then comes man's true nature, wanting a substitute form of deity, a divine presence in the vacuum (not God but someone or some thing). Then comes the free masons, skull and bones, etc, etc. Cults are always symbolic, secretive, codes. They want to make sure they can identify one another with certain hand shakes, jewelry, profiteering towards one another both in business, politics, social engineering, and even the judiciary at the court house. (You will find that Masonic lawyers always get prejudice treatment from Masonic judges.) From the White House, to the school house, free masons and the off-springs of free masons (Mormon church, fraternal groups such as skull and bones) have found a substitute deity, rituals which they observe even at the graveside, a substitute for Jehovah God of the universe. You can always tell a cult by their "degrees" of separation from God and from one another. Their monolithic idealism such as vestments, words such as "Apostles", "degrees-masters," "temples", "lodges", initiations in the dark, separation, "Big I little U" mentality. The idolatry has even progressed to including symbols in corporate signature-logo.

            Searching the soul we know that man can not live on bread alone (Matthew 4:4).  Man may survive by his own devises, his own wit and wisdom BUT, when he searches his soul, he realizes his need for the supreme God of the universe. This realization, particularly when you are at the end of the road or even at the crossroads, will give you the stability needed, grace through faith, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13).  Take heart my fellow disabled-disenfranchised friends, Christ has said, and I believe him, "I will never leave thee nor forsake the" (Hebrews 13:5).