Contemplation

I fled Him down the nights and down the days

I fled Him down the arches of the years
I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind, and in the midst of tears

Francis Thompson (1859-1907), British poet. The Hound of Heaven

            It was after my active military service that I was able to practice my profession for a while, getting well established in the community in many ways-- public speaking, civic activity, etc.

            I was eating supper, alone, in my favorite barbeque restaurant in Goldsboro, NC. A black man, Adam Scott, during the cruelest days of racial discrimination, had opened a large restaurant to the public. The last time I was there, in the city, attending a funeral, since most of his employees were former patients of mine, he had everyone, including the kitchen staff, come out to greet me. (The last time this happened it was in India, Udaipur, when I had complimented the chef on the meal and service and he had the entire kitchen staff come out to greet me.) I saw small elderly woman eating alone at a table and I recognized her as my third grade teacher. I thought, "She won't remember me. Why should I bother her." But, I walked up and said to her, "Miss Collier, you were my third grade teacher."

            She said, "Thomas, sit down. You look just like your mother." I was complimented because my mother was a beautiful woman. I reminded her of the glass bottles, each filled to a different level, where she taught us about the tones of music. Towards the end of our visit, with tears running down her face, she said, "You have made it all worth while. This is the best day of my life."

            

           Not many months after that, on another occasion, I saw someone who was a distant memory. She had driven the "Book-Mobile" to our poor community. My mother would walk with my sister and I down to the crossroads where my cousin, Bagley, had a country store. My mother was anxious for us to get books each week, when the woman came with her truck of books. I still remember the book that made such a impression on my life-- T-Model Tommy, a book about a boy in poverty, who started a trucking business, with just one truck, proving that anyone, with hard work, can become successful. Again, she remembered my cousin's country store and the years of the "Book-Mobile." And, again with tears running down her face, she said, "You are the first one to thank me. You have truly made my life worth-while."

            It is very difficult to talk to tombstones. So often, we wait too late to say, "Thank you." Made in the image of God, we are wired to love God and one another.   

And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

Luke 10:27

            The devil, and a third of all the angels in heaven were kicked out of heaven because of pride and their inability to love. Our ancestors, Adam and Eve, chose a spirit of death and ingratitude, rather than a spirit of life and love. And so it persists until this very day-- so many hate. They have just been released, thousands of photographs from the latest war, 26,000 images of Syrians-- strangled, beaten, and starved.

            When this writer and world traveler was in Pisa, Italy, I could not help but think of Galileo, standing on the outside (baptistery of the cathedral) of The Leaning Tower, gazing on the heavens through his home-made telescope-- the religious leaders would not look through it. And, most of the stars, which atheist astronomers look at today, are probably just reflections. But, it costs so little to give respect and dignity to others. Like the great jurist said, "You know it when you see it."

            In the poverty of an Eastern North Carolina tobacco farm, while hanging the sticks of green tobacco in the curing barns, my hard-working father would always precede his sons and workers to the top of the barn, so that if anyone fell, it would be him-- like real leaders in the military always preceding troops in battle. The communists have learned to kill officers, particularly doctors and other medical officers.

            In a world of technology, some things remain the same. An African boy will snatch a honey bee. To an appendage of the bee, he will attach a hair, and in turn, a white feather to the hair. He lets the honey bee go, and then, he and his friends, running through trees and bushes, follow the white feather, to a deposit of much-wanted, desired honey. Evolutionists have never been able to explain the magnificent science of honey production. 22,700 bees are required to fill a single jar of honey, an astounding feat. Over a year the queen will produce between 100,000 and 200,000 bees that will each spend between 10 and 20 days collecting nectar. And, we think we are so smart. God told us to think of an even smaller animal, the ant, as remarkable as the honey bee -- think of what the two spikes on an ant's back can accomplish.

Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

Proverbs 6:6-8

            My life has been involved with the study of the human body, always wanting to challenge my unbelieving doctor friends to explain how and why, when one cries, that, with the same lachrymal gland in the eye, tears of joy have a different chemical composition than tears of sorrow. The mystery of the ages is how a human being's crowning glory, their central nervous system, can so differ, with some having so much love, and others so much hate.

            Of late there is so much news involving the Central African Republic-- I have written about this many times, because I was the first American to enter CAR after the reign of Bokassa. As the first American there, the government hovered over me, so afraid that something would happen. I could not go to a bathroom alone. Bokassa had declared himself emperor of the country and would race up and down the streets of Bangui in a chariot, dressed in the garb of a roman emperor. The authorities wanted me to see his palace on the outskirts of town. They had enclosed the entire area with wire fence and guards. For some reason, they wanted me to see it-- and I had a small amount of vision at the time. Around the palace he had a deep moat, filled with crocodiles. He would feed his enemies to the crocodiles. My guide told me that on the days they had not caught an enemy, they would throw chickens into the moat. He said, "You have never seen so many feathers." Inside his dwelling, he had a large refrigerated room, with hooks where he would hang the female corpses of his enemies. The situation became so atrocious, so internationally embarrassing, that the French sent in troops to clean up their former colony. It appears that such hatred and insanity has resurfaced. We are seeing unbelievable atrocities throughout the world. The great writer, Will Durant, best known for the 11 volume, The Story of Civilization, said "No society has ever survived without moral code." Our blessed Lord, in His book, His manufacturer's handbook, and by His word and His life here on Earth, has told us how to survive, and not only how to survive and prosper here on Earth, but also how to claim an eternal relationship with Him-- the goal is heaven. In today's reality, even in America, the world's richest nation, in the grand scheme of things, when seen on a national economic pie chart of the distribution of wealth, the bottom 40% can barely even be seen. The middle class has dissolved into the status of not being much better than the impoverished. One percent of Americans have 40% of the nation's wealth, which is now about 54 trillion dollars. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmtm9CSLjaQ

            The genius of Christianity is its simplicity, everything a gift. God gave us His son, and His son has given us life. If only we could learn to give the gift of love to one another.

The Sweetness of Little Things

The small coins of love!

(J.R. Miller, "Evening Thoughts" 1907)

"Be kind and compassionate to one another" Ephesians 4:32

We should be always kind. Nothing is more helpful than kindness. Nothing else does more to brighten the world and sweeten other lives.

Kindnesses are the small coins of love. We should always be ready to scatter these coins wherever we go. Kindnesses are usually little things that we do as we go along our daily path--wayside acts, touches, words, little helpful things. We never know when we do any little thing in love for Christ, what the end of it will be--what a harvest of good will finally come from it. It is better to do a thousand little kindnesses every day, than to do a great deed of love once in a year, and then fail to be kind in the common days.

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

Addition | From Dr. T.R. Morris

The Sweetness of Little Things

This writer, to the end of his days, will never understand human beings. Even so-called "Christians," playing games with God, thinking that the creator of the universe can be fooled. Do you control the game, or does the game control you? It was never intended for the church to exist for its own purpose. Those who claim the name of Christ, should have a different attitude in everything they do.

The great preacher, Charles Spurgeon said, "Kindness is so sweet that even honey looses its taste." In this world of big "I," little "you," most of us grovel-grasp for any kindness. Have you noticed that in television programs, radio programs, even sermons at the church house, people are grasping for a chance to smile or laugh-- they will laugh at just about anything.

The loneliest life is the life of the disabled-- wheelchair bound, blind, deaf, and certainly those with incurable diseases (diabetes, cancer, cardiac problems). Mark Twain said, "Kindness costs so little." This old blind man yearns for signs of kindness-- someone opening a door for him, a waitress actually reading a menu, or explaining where food is located on my plate.

I was just a small child when it happened. One of my father's friends worked at the North Carolina Hospital for the Negro Insane (Goldsboro, NC), now called Cherry Hospital. My father had stopped by the hospital to see his friend there. I do believe I started life with inquisitive mind. I was always asking questions and observing everything around. At that time, as in most military installations, public buildings were built with large porches due to summer heat. The black inmates filled the porches, their hands above them, tied to the ceiling. There they stayed all day-- in the filth of their own defecate. The hog pens of today would not be worse. These human beings only had one life to live. Many years later I saw almost the same scene in an asylum in the nation of Israel. If we cannot be kind, even to one another, in the best of circumstances, just think what happens in the worst of circumstances. In a world of political correctness, where the media does not want to offend anyone-- particularly Obama supporters-- the truth is truth, whether anyone believes it or not. For instance, radiation surrounds the earth from the worst nuclear accident in history in Fukushima Japan. Another 4.2 earthquake shook Fukushima recently, but there wasn't a word of it in the news media.

We need the kindness of concern-- news media, pulpit, and legislative groups. No matter the education, wealth, or genes, most people you meet are carrying around baggage and so need some kindness.

Others

Lord, help me live from day to day
In such a self-forgetful way
That even when I kneel to pray
My prayer shall be for—Others.

Others, Lord, yes others,
Let this my motto be,
Help me to live for others,
That I may live like Thee.

Help me in all the work I do
To ever be sincere and true
And know that all I’d do for You
Must needs be done for—Others.

Let “Self” be crucified and slain
And buried deep: and all in vain
May efforts be to rise again,
Unless to live for—Others.

And when my work on earth is done,
And my new work in Heav’n’s begun,
May I forget the crown I’ve won,
While thinking still of—Others.

Scar Tissue

One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever… The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to the place where he arose… The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to its circuits… All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come thither they return again.

Ecclesiastes 1:3-11

We are a frail people with many warts. The race is ours, but how does anyone complete the journey without the Holy Spirit's guidance of faith in Jesus Christ. Then, as many days last year, this old, disabled veteran was going through the trauma and tremors of survival, in a world fraught with potholes. It was in a small, clap-board church, on the island of Samoa. A female, missionary preacher, advised me,  "Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee." I realized then, as I know now, that for the rest of my life I must depend on His strength.

It has been a long time. I have not seen an automobile in 50 years, but at one time I did drive. I well remember guardrails along the highways in dangerous places, keeping a vehicle from tumbling down a ravine. Even so, it happens-- injuries from war, disease, sin, wounds, abrasions and warts of every type. The body has a remarkable ability to heal itself-- regardless of the type of wound, to heal them, leaving tough scar tissue.

A precious fact of christian history, Mary, the mother of our blessed lord, went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who, at an advanced age, was pregnant. Have you ever considered the length of the journey for a 13-year-old girl? She had to walk. Where did she sleep? What did she eat? In a marvelous example of love and concern for family, she realized that her cousin needed help.

If today's Christian church assembly has a physical need at all, it is to help those in need. How many wheelchairs do you see in your church? How many blind people with white canes?

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

James 1:27

What about the widows, single mothers, and "fatherless" children in your church, in your community. There are as many abortions, divorces, and children, without a father in the home, in the church as there are in the unsaved community. I have lived in my current home for about 50 years, since it was built. I have never had a Christian to come to my door about my soul, or even my going to their church. The only religious people who have ever visited my house, over and over, are Jehovah's Witnesses. One restaurant in this town had the nerve to tell me that they did not encourage disabled people to eat with them because it made their normal customers feel bad. I believe the same occurs in the church house-- I know it did at the last church, where I held membership (First Baptist Church, Wilmington, NC). Totally blind, an usher would not even help me find a seat. I learned over the years, that those who knew me, wanted me there, simply because of my ability to give money.

The best employees are handicapped employees. Disabled Christians, and others, need the fellowship and encouragement of church life.

The ticket to many ball games, in large stadiums can cost upwards of $250. This past weekend, at the Packers game, thousands sat in a stadium at -11 degrees wind-chill. They were willing to sit in the arctic cold, and pay that price, to watch millionaires run up and down a field. Yet, Christians, who say they believe that they will spend eternity with God, will not leave a comfortable home, ride in a comfortable car, to worship God in a comfortable building IF the weather is bad-- a few drops of rain. Surely, if they believe in the supernatural ability of God to know everything, they should know that God knows how much they believe in God, trust Him, desire Him. Even many of the worst among us actually believe that they will go to heaven when they die. Their goal is heaven when they die, but they want little to do with God's people while here on Earth.

It is inconceivable that anyone experiencing the healing, scar tissue from wounds, anyone who has read God's book, could believe in the killing of the unborn, the obscenity of same-sex marriage. If it is wrong for one man to marry another man, why is it not wrong for all men to marry all men? In doing so, the population would soon measure zero. God knew what He was doing, from the first family, to your family. How is it possible that denominations are afraid to put up guard rails against perversion? Sin, sickness, poverty, and warfare has always been with us. Jesus healed the sick. He told us that we will always have the poor with us. (Mark 14:7) He knew about political and religious deceivers. (Matthew 23:27)

You instantly know your relationship with God, by the way you deal with your problems. Go into any bookstore and you will find shelves of self-help books. Why not go to the one who gave us all the guardrails we would ever need. Who, after wounds, gave us renewed strength through tougher tissue.

The more you refuse to hear my voice
The louder I will sing
You hide behind walls of Jericho
Your lies will come tumbling
Deny my place in time
You squander wealth that's mine
My light will shine so brightly
It will blind you
Cos there's something inside so strong

--Labi Siffre

Iron Pockets

Iron Pockets

From Grace Gems at gracegems.org

The lesson applies to other things besides bread!

(J.R. Miller, "Evening Thoughts" 1907)

"Gather the fragments that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." John 6:12

"Waste not, want not," says the proverb.

It seems remarkable that He who could so easily multiply the few loaves into an abundant meal, should be so particular about saving the fragments that remained left over. But He would teach us economy by His own example.

The lesson applies to other things besides bread. We should never waste anything! Many people waste whole years of time in the little fragments which they lose every day. If, at the end of a year, they could gather up all these fragments, they would have many basketfuls of precious pieces of golden time.

In mints where gold is coined, the sweepings of the floor, the settlings of the water in which the men wash their hands, the very smoke from the furnaces, are all carefully swept through for fine particles of precious gold; and during the years large sums are recovered in this way.

If only we would learn to care as scrupulously for the fragments of the precious things which pass through our hands, we would be far richer at the end of our life.

--In Addition, Dr. Morris

The word conservative is so poorly used, often as a political mantra. One who is conservative, is conservative in everything, even to turning off the water when brushing their teeth.

During my eight years of university education (and it was a matter of necessity as it was idealism), I was so frugal in my lifestyle that my nickname was "Iron Pockets." I matriculated through all those years of college limiting my eating budget to one dollar a day. I so remember, at Chapel Hill, twenty five cents for breakfast(bowl of grits and coffee), twenty-five cents for lunch(small sandwich), fifty cents for supper(vegetable plate and coffee). I have always bought my clothing at a thrift store, usually the Salvation Army. I do not own, until this day, one article of clothing purchased new. I do not own a shirt which cost over twenty-five cents.

Now, it is none of my business how you spend your money. Many years ago, a bishop in the Methodist denomination told me, when I went to him talking about Gideons going into the Methodist churches to raise money, "It is none of my business how Methodist's spend their money." This writer was the first professional man to be admitted to the Gideon Christian Organization. Before the San Francisco convention, 1964, membership in the organization which distributes Bibles was limited to Christian businessmen.

It has always been comforting to me that Jesus instructed His followers to pick up the fragments. I do not throw ANYTHING away. If I could see, I would darn-mend my socks. Especially, the throwing away of food. I have heard public school officials talk about the free-government-paid lunches given to school children, and that the school children mostly throw away the food. This old, blind veteran would love to have one of those lunches! I have heard people who work in fast-food restaurants, talk of the food they would throw away at the end of the day. . . Throwing away good food when there are hungry people all around us.

Every day, 4 o'clock A.M., in my time of prayer, I pray for hungry children and refugees around the world. I am personally thrilled to know that just as Jesus fed people physically and spiritually, while in His short time on this earth, He enjoyed food fellowship with His friends, such as Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Our blessed Lord certainly wants us to eat and enjoy food. But it must give Him great pain to know there are so many hungry people in a world of plenty. It must grieve Him to see what I saw in Buddhist countries, human beings who are very hungry, yet carrying large baskets of food to temples where monkeys are worshipped. It surely must grieve Him to know the amount of money wasted in warfare, billions of dollars, money that could be well spent on good things. When I was young, Washington D.C. referred to one million dollars as one dollar. In the insanity in spending there now, everything measured in billions of dollars. Stack one dollar on another until you have a billion dollars, and you will have a stack of dollars 64 miles high. If you started counting one billion dollars, dollar bills one-by-one, you would not live long enough even without taking a minute off normal life span, to count one billion dollars. Washington now spends about 10 billion dollars each day.

For whatever your vote is worth now, the Christian economy of one's money depends on one's insight into the generosity of God. He gave us life--His Son--and His Son has given us everything of true value. We can give without loving, but we cannot love without giving. In my personal life, the more I make-save-invest, the more I'm able to give for His important work. I truly believe that God loves a cheerful giver(2 Corinthians 9:7).

I was reared in a frugal living home. My mother would say, "we save for a rainy day." My father would jump over a gate to keep from wearing out the hinge. He was just as frugal at the church house, and school house (he was school board chairman) as he was at our house. In my personal philanthropy, my personal giving to God's work is the most important thing in my life. I draw the line at giving anywhere, anytime, to people or organizations who live better than I live. It sickens me to know how some preachers live, such as Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Robert Schuller, to name several. One pastor told me that during the hot summer, he kept his AC so low that he could sleep comfortably under a blanket. It reminded me of Richard Nixon, who during the summer would turn the AC down low and keep the fireplace going in the White House. If you want to get ill, think of the obscene extravagances of today's White House occupants. The same God who took a small boy's lunch and fed thousands, still has the power to correct obscenities in the world. Every page of His book, tells us that He knows what is going on in your life as in mine.

Those Everlasting Arms

--From Grace Gems at gracegems.org

However low we may sink!

(J.R. Miller, "Evening Thoughts" 1907)

"The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms!" Deuteronomy 33:27

Of course God has no arms; but He reveals Himself to us in human language--the only language we could understand.

We know what a mother's arms, a father's arms, mean to a child. But human arms are frail, and any hour their embrace may be withdrawn. The other day a child was grieving by his mother's coffin--but the arms which had clasped the boy always so tenderly, could not move to comfort him.

But the arms of God are "everlasting." God holds His redeemed children in the strong embrace of His love! No matter what may come to us of danger, of calamity, of terror--they will still and ever enfold us.

These arms of God are ever and always "underneath" us. However low we may sink away in pain, in weakness, in sorrow--we shall never sink out of the divine arms! Jesus said no one can snatch His loved ones out of His hands.

In death, when we shall sink out of every human embrace--we shall still be in the clasp of God's love and His everlasting arms will be underneath us. Such a word as this assures us of eternal security in God's love!

--In Addition, Dr. Morris

            No doctor is worth a flip unless he knows the value of the laying on of hands. I truly believe my patients received more benefits from my hands than anything else, because I always took their hand and held it--rubbed it, both male and female, young and old, any skin color, rich or poor. The human body is truly magnificent, God's chief creation. Have you ever considered these five-fingered things at the end of your arms. . . what they are capable of doing. . .playing a piano or any other instrument, intricate surgery, producing everything from work on a computer, to picking beans in the garden?

            The first pastor I can remember, my cousin, graduate of the First Free-Will Baptist College, held pastortes for over 75 years, was asked to superintend the denomination's orphanage during WWII. He told me that there were 80 children at the orphanage, and he had an annual budget of $10,000. Of course, back then, some great church member had left the orphanage a large farm. And the children worked on the farm. Also, back then, orphans were called inmates. He told me about one father bringing a child to him, court-judge's order, that the father had so abused the child, YET, he had to pry the child's fingers from the father because the child was holding onto the father so tightly. Abused children, abused wives, always hold on to the only arms of security that they know-- in spite of abuse. Dogs and other pets always return to a master who abuses them.

            Thank God, most pets, most children, most wives, and even old people, have known the security of loving arms; particularly, the everlasting arms of God. And, often, the only thing we have left to hold onto: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5). Foreign missionaries, soldiers on the front line in foreign battles, the sick and disenfranchised, have the everlasting arms of God on which to cling and rely. I think of my ancestors who landed in this country in 1611. Soldiers of the cross, who believed Christ when He said for us to go into the world and spread His Gospel (Mark 16:15). And those who set the standard, whom God will showcase for all eternity in heaven, of whom the earth was not worthy (Hebrews 11:38).

            Heaven is our goal, there is a cost to discipleship. No sin, no matter how small, will enter heaven. Today's Christian church is besmirched, bewitched (Galations 3:1). Oh, 21st century church, who has bewildered you? Fooled you? Snared you? into believing that even seekers, even the chosen, must repent, have new birth, have purity of heart, to see God. Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

            This old, blind veteran would liked to have seen his parents before they were buried in the ground. But, I had the undertaker put my hands on their hands, so I could feel again the hands that had done so much for me. . . the arms that had carried so many burdens. The arms of my parents, grandparents, any other human beings I have known, cannot compare to the everlasting arms of God, that have picked me up, so many times, when I have fallen. It is good to build great buildings, great colleges, great hospitals, great homes, but then you have what churches, colleges, hospitals, homes can do. It is high time for those concerned about the plight of the church, healthcare, education, and home life, to start thinking about prayer for these institutions. Because, when you have prayer, then you have what God can do. The world needs more than any other time in history, what God can do.

           

Ghosts

Isaiah 64:4  For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. (KJV)

            Life is a hectic interlude in an otherwise peaceful nonexistence. . . so says the atheist. This writer, a committed-convinced believer in Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of God, the Triune God, is confident in saying, I am Christian, BUT not I am a Christian, with all that those words entail. It is like saying, " I am American" Not, I am an American. When you are American, you believe in everything the American experience establishes. . . Rule of law and every symbol of patriotism (I speak as a totally blind, 100% disabled, medical officer veteran of the Korean War era). When you say I am Christian, it is not a lukewarm profession(Revelation 3:16). Most of today's church members, neither hot nor cold, often envious of their unbelieving family and friends, talking-dressing-addictions as unbelievers--want the benefits of Christian belief, but none of its responsibilities. They do not have a faith which is action based on belief, sustained by confidence. Most church members think God needs them. For God to be God, He does not need anything. He could save the entire city of New York in one instant if He chose to do so, could instill His nature in monkeys if He wanted to. I am convinced that most people, believers and non-believers, have no concept of what they are dealing with, with a belief in Jehovah God. Just think. From nothingness to somethingness. Everlasting to everlasting. He spoke and worlds were formed--the heavenly hosts, planets, stars. He holds the oceans of the world in his hands, measures the Himalayas with His fingers. Yet, has numbered the hairs on your head, interested in your every problem. He is at the crossroads of your life before you get there.

            Through God's eyeglasses of holiness, He investigates the souls of those who claim His Son's name. In the new birth, the righteousness of Jesus transmutes to you, and God sees the righteousness of Jesus when He looks at you (John 3:7)

            You have only one life to live. He gives us free will. But the race is ours. "Only one life, will soon be passed." What a mess some make of this wonderful life, every human being made in the image of God. This writer is convinced that God wanted him to experience His creation, places, people, things. He arranged for me to travel the world. I climbed the pyramids on the Nile as well as the pyramids in South America. I have seen beauty and decadence, myself experienced poverty and wealth. I saw the coal dust covered children around the mines in Hyderabad, India; barefoot children on ice at the border of Pakistan. As a medical student, pulling duty at the VA hospital in Millington, Tennessee, I saw WWII veterans without arms or legs.

           

            We know that America, a supposed Christian nation, churches on every corner and crossroads, has more of its citizens in prison than any other country in the world. As of 2012, about 1,570,000 inmates occupied state and federal prisons, more prisoners than high school teachers. Every time I go inside a fast food restaurant, young people who should be in school, adults who should be at work, all talking on Obama phones. One-half the population of the United States living off the work of the other half. Technology has changed the world, but human nature has worsened.

            At the church house--people playing church; the pulpit more interested in entertaining goats than feeding sheep. At the courthouse--people playing with justice. State-house playing with laws. School house playing with education. Your house mostly a service station--just a place to change clothes. Unbelievers tell me they do not believe in God because of problems/suffering. . . economic, medical, etc. GOD DID NOT promise us a problem-free life. . . we have His promises without explanations. A tree, magnificence of God's creative ability, even with much sun and water, will not grow; will die, without wind. There will be storms in life. OUR ROOT SYSTEMS NEED IT, we learn to be long-suffering, to wait upon the Lord. (Psalm 37:9)

            One-third of all young people have had no experience with religion. Those reared in so-called "Christian" homes, went to church as children, perhaps even cradled Catholics, never go to church again after entering college. They base their spirituality on feelings--not facts. Jesus Christ is a fact. Every date on every document in the world proclaims His birth. Truth is truth whether anyone believes it or not. The truth of the world-- Jesus triumphant in death.

            I had a young man working for me. He and his wife had four children AND they decided their children should be in church. The parents were unsaved, had never attended church, but had enough sense to know that all values come from Christianity. They decided on one Sunday to go to a church near their house. I know his address; I know the church described. Its founder died recently. He said, "we enjoyed the music-singing." He said they were passing out little glasses of something and little pieces of bread. "What were they doing?" he asked. In the Christian experience, there is no ordinance-covenant as wonderful as the Lord's supper. Yet, some preacher failed to describe to the visitors the significance of what they were doing. To the uninitiated, everything is obscure. To the uninitiated, you must explain the sciences, arts, magnificence (even) of God's plans.

            The ghosts from a lack of values, holding onto the absolutes of good and evil, knowing that most of our family and friends have gone to hell, will haunt us to life's end. Kings and presidents will fail. Politicians die. They, along with scientists and economists, having believed that their disciplines were so important, will one day know that the most important thing in their life, sin to ruin and Christ's redemption. Even the intelligentsia of the world produce children. And the most tragic fact known to man: parents, educated or uneducated, rich or poor, following the casket of an unsaved child to an open grave. Stop majoring on minor things. . . the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches plus lusts for unimportant things(Mark 4:19). When you reach my age (83) you realize how fast the sun sets, how important it is not to have ghosts of regrets encircling you.

Exiles

One Misty Moisty Morning

Steeleye Span

One misty moisty morning when cloudy was the weather
I met with an old man a-clothed all in leather
He was clothed all in leather with a cap beneath his chin
Singing how do you do and how do you do and how do you do again
This rustic was a thresher as on his way he hied
And with a leather bottle fast buckled by his side
He wore no shirt upon his back but wool unto his skin
Singing how do you do and how do you do and how do you do again

Many have asked this writer, world-traveler (8 round-the-world trips, passport stamped in 157 countries, every continent), "What is the most exciting place you have ever visited?" I would have to say, considering the beauty and differences in all parts of the world, that nothing compares to Antarctica, and particularly the penguins. There are 17 species of penguins; Emperor, tall; Macaronis, small, so friendly. I felt I was in a Kool cigarette commercial the entire time I was there. The Adelie penguin is the most common penguin in Antarctica! After a long winter in the Southern Hemisphere, the Adelie penguins make their way to their mating grounds throughout coastal Antarctica. The male and female penguins strut and bray, hoping to attract the attention of another Adelie penguin. When a special penguin catches their eye, the Adelie penguin presents the penguin of their affection with a stone. If the penguin accepts the stone, they start a bond for life. Each new spring, the couples find each other again; and again, a new stone is presented as a token of affection.

These days, unlike any other days in history, and for many of us the final days of world history (New World Order, globalism, gay agenda) news items, conversations, and new regulations, from the white house to the courthouse, to your house, all involve sex. The actress Bette Davis said, "The act of sex, gratifying as it may be, is God's joke on humanity." It must be a real embarrassment to most parents of young children that they are constantly bombarded by the media, the government, everywhere you turn, with emphasis on sex-- particularly the abomination of same-sex marriage and the destruction of a super-power military by gays on the front line. Surveys have shown that the gay population is about 3% of the national population. We know that the black population is about 13%, and think what their emphasis on civil rights has done. Nothing compares to the chaos caused by the gay agenda-- if it is that small-- LGBT rights, even to the extent that if a boy feels like a girl one day, can go into the girls bathroom/ locker-room and prance around with the girls. The question is, "How did we get here?"

It started in the Garden of Eden with God's creation of man and woman, with the need for animals to multiply-- and multiply they did.

And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth

Genesis 1:11

Everything, flora and fauna, fertilizing-reproducing, male and female, opposites attracting "after its kind."

The entire world is electricity. The elementary school student is capable of studying the atom, with its positive and negative forces. Every chemical equation is balanced by positive and negative values. Every law of physics, even gravitational forces, operating systems on our planet, and others, are all because of positive and negative attraction. Even some languages, such as French, are comprised of words with feminine and masculine gender.

I was at the university in 1953 when Crick and Watson published Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid. I thought that this would surely eternally clarify the makeup of the human being. I still believe that one day a gene, or other indicator, in the individual cell, will show which person is chosen of God, and which are not. Everything about you, the many pages of your ancestry, are in each of the billion cells in your body. I can say, without fear of contradiction, that to date, there is nothing in your DNA which indicates you are bi-sexual, homosexual, or any of these other things, even try-sexual (people who will try anything). From years of observation and study, talking with confused, deviant, perverted people, I am convinced that, just as you have male or female plumbing at birth (with the exception of hermaphrodites), the child trained masculine-feminine, will never go through the horror of sexual identification. Fathers should train their boys to be men. Mothers should train their daughters to be women. There is no pseudo-science as wrecking as psychology. Most sexual problems lay at their doorstep. One psychologist believed that if you gave a girl trucks, she would become boyish. When her father came into her room, she said, "The trucks, my babies, are covered and asleep. Please be quiet." My cousin was brought up by a father who wanted a boy. He always had her doing "male" things with him-- working on the car, repairing plumbing, etc. An only child, with her mother's heart broken, she died a lesbian. I never knew a gay male who ever referred to his father. There is purity in parenting. In the Civil War, before anesthesia, it was perfectly permissible to get a patient drunk on alcohol before surgery, but not so today. We know what causes most psychological sexual disorders (homosexuality was considered a disorder until recently), now everyone, particularly Hollywood and the news media, wants all sexual activity glorified.

The first words thrown at me: You are judging someone. I stood on the mount of beatitudes in Galilee, where Jesus spoke about judging. He was talking about judging the heart of another person. We do not know what is in another person's heart, only God knows that. Clinics and hospitals are full of people so confused by sex. The genius of creation, the magnificence of God, is variety. The first family on earth had two very different brothers. Cain killed Able. The first Jew, Abraham had twin grandsons-- the difference between Jacob and Esau, Jacob a "mama's boy." Jacob produced the 12 tribes of Israel. Esau became a great man in his own right, and so it has been ever since. At least until the 21st century, confused, or whatever, staying in the closet. Parents were not offended, children not confused, by those who kept their secretive sexual activity behind closed doors.

I hear, particularly on radio talk shows, well-intended believers in God, speaking about God's book, and what it has to say about homosexuality, such as in the first chapter of Romans. Of course, the homosexual community plays games with God TOO. Those who believe in same-sex marriage, open homosexual activity, bi-sexual accommodations (bath and locker rooms, etc.) do not believe in God's word, do not want to hear God's word. To satisfy their lust, they are willing to take a chance with God, jobs, public acceptance, or anything else.

The Lord Will Provide-2014

Lord, how can we know the way?

(J.R. Miller, "Evening Thoughts" 1907)

Thomas said to Him, "Lord, how can we know the way?"
Jesus said to him, "I am the way" John 14:5-6

This is the first day of a new year. We are setting out on a journey of which we can have no knowledge in advance. The road is one on which we never have gone hitherto. We know not what any day will have for us . . .
  what our duties will be,
  what burdens shall be laid upon us,
  what sorrows we shall have to endure,
  what battles we shall have to fight.

We cannot see one step before us! How can we know the way?

As we sit in the quiet, this first evening, and ask the question, we hear an answer which is full of comfort. Jesus says to us, "I am the way!"

All we shall have to do, therefore, will be to follow Jesus. He has made a way through this dark world for us. He has gone over all the journey and opened a road for us at great cost. He went over the way Himself--we shall find His shoe-prints at every step.

He has a definite way for each one of us. Every mile of the journey He has chosen--and every place where I pitch my tent He has selected for me!

"Leaving you an example, so that you should follow in His steps!" 1 Peter 2:21

BONUS GEM!

"So Abraham called that place Jehovah-Jireh--The Lord Will Provide!" Genesis 22:14

(J.R. Miller)

Write deep in your heart this New Year's day, this word of sublime confidence: Jehovah-Jireh. It tells you . . .
   that you can trust God always;
   that no promise of His ever fails;
   that He does all things well;
   that out of all seeming loss and destruction of human hopes, He brings blessing.

"You have never traveled this way before." Joshua 3:4. There will be sorrows and joys, failures and successes, this year, just as there were last year. You cannot forecast individual experiences. You cannot see a step before your feet! Yet Jehovah-Jireh calls you to enter the new year with calm trust in Him. It bids you put away all anxieties and forebodings, "The Lord will provide!"

The Lord Will Provide-2014

--Addition Dr. Morris

            The above says it all. Facing the New Year, 2014.

            How does the unsaved face any day? The troubles and trials which we all encounter?

1 Peter 1:7  ^"That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:"

            This writer, every day of my life, starts the day, early in the morning with prayer and a private communion service. When that four-inch thick veil was wrent top to bottom, we were given access to God. It is not necessary to go to God through a priest or a preacher. That veil, four layers, the layer closest to the holy of holies--white; purity; scarlet; sacrifice, purple--royalty, blue; humanity. Then, now, later, "Jesus paid it all." I take a taste of wine in humble thankfulness for His shed blood. A small piece of bread, humble thankfulness, for his healing. (You see, I believe that Jesus died for our healing as well as for our salvation.)

            And, I can go directly to Him seeking continuous forgiveness, continuous healing, continuous pleading for daily peace, providing. I know that He is at the crossroads before I get there.

            Too many have said to me, "I don't understand how a totally blind person can continue their faith when they have so many aggravations." For instance, this very day, I paid an employee to clean carpets in a large building which I own and rent out to others. . . I had already paid him for doing the work. Today, I find that he had not cleaned the carpets at all. He lied to me in order to get money from me. These are the "troubles and trials" of this present world (Mark 4:19). We have a generation of people who want something for nothing. How could I, an old, blind veteran, "keep on keeping on" unless I have "blessed assurance" that God is taking care of good as well as bad. This is the way you face every day of this New Year and every year.

"Trusting and Obeying--" Hymn

Illiquidity

Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Orange County, California

"Widowed, have left the spaces of high heaven and, banished from the sky, have given up my place to harlots; I must dwell on earth, for harlots hold the sky."

- SENECA THE YOUNGER, Advisor to emperor Nero - Hercules Furens

This race is ours to run. No one else can live your life for you. Sooner or later, we must learn, in spite of everything, that we live on the promises of God, and not explanations. This writer does not want to waste his pain hurting others. Look all around you, at those you know and do not know; there is no way for you to know the baggage they carry.

When you stand, watching a parade, you know what is passing by now. You know what went by earlier, but only God knows what is yet to come.

The disguise of looks and money conceals much. There is always fresh meat ready for the grill; it's so easy to find something to criticize. Too much preaching and politicizing involves criticism. The goose guards her eggs; the lioness, her cubs. The politician/ pastor/ bureaucrat is only interested in reelection.

Born in poverty on a dirt road, with no power, phone or water lines, we knew the pleasure of fresh water from a hand pump for drinking, bathing and cooking, We knew how our farm animals enjoyed the fresh water from a hand pump. Seventy percent of the human body is water, and God knew the importance of water. He knew that those who trust in him would never thirst again.

Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.

John 4:13- 14

Two thirds of the earth's surface is covered in water. Salty water from the oceans, evaporating, condensing, and, through the God-given, electrical process of magnetism, pure droplets fall to the earth. They can fall with force (hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.) In everything, God is in charge. He is boss. The entire world of mass and matter is comprised of electrical impulses, attracting and opposing forces, pluses and minuses, the photosynthesis of plants, the homeostasis of animals, the absolutes of God-- magnificent plan of the universe (perhaps this will help you understand the abomination and insanity of same-sex marriage).

Surely the questioning mind of any child born in poverty would ask, "Why me?" Surely the questioning mind of any college student, in the struggle against hunger and poor preparation, would ask, "Why me?" I come from a small country school, with thirteen in my graduating class, proffered into a state university populated by the elitists, those who had won life's lottery.

Everyone comes to the razor's edge, life's time of reckoning. My time happened sitting on a stone fence behind the university library, Wilson Hall. The 21st century's most abused word is "fairness." Is it fair that some born into this world, supposedly children of God, have so little, while others have so much? Is it fair that some born in the world have such good looks, while others' are ordinary? Is it fair that some come from such poor homes, and some from homes of indulgence? Is it fair, because of genes or otherwise, that some enjoy extraordinary health, while others are sickly?

I learned early, even in the conservative-evangelical, almost puritanical country church, that many were just going through the motions. If God is love, and I believe that He is, why so much disparity? My family, those around me, knew that faith is action, based on belief, sustained by confidence. The grace and mercy of God was our wealth. Some of us really believed that the love and kindness of God is better than life. (Psalm 63:3) This country boy, then a university student, then army medical officer, recognized that most people, even members of my own family, even friends and associates, were just playing games with God. Iff those in pulpits, on church pews, or on wall street, actually believed in God, actually believed in an eternal hell, they would spend every waking moment of their life witnessing and working to keep people out of hell-- particularly those they love. As one man told me, "If I really believed in the horrors of Hell, eternal fire and darkness, I would crawl on my hands and knees across the earth to keep people from going there. And, if families and friends believed in the goal of heaven, we would do everything possible to get those we love, there."

This writer has known for many years that Christianity is not real to most believers. It has become a good way of life, even of making a living. The 21st century made a beggar of God. This writer is so disparaged and depressed, hearing preacher after preacher, program after program, presenting the blessing of Gods, and yet take the majority of their program to ask and plead for money. The preacher will use glorious words to proclaim our trust in God, singing "Blessed Assurance," singing "Trust and Obey," yet, on the same purchased radio time, they beg for funds from anyone who will listen. The new twist is matching funds (some wealthy contributor promising a large sum of money to match the paltry donations of others). I saw my poor, hard-working, God-fearing, tax-paying father send much money to Rex Humbard at the Church of Tomorrow in Akron, Ohio. So it was with Oral Roberts, Benny Henn, even that chief-hustler, Dr. Robert Schuler, at Crystal Cathedral (now defunct, his givers divided as eagles, or large givers, and sparrows, small givers). I love the pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, and First Baptist in Atlanta, but even these pastors ask for money. Christians, as well as non-Christians, with any type of procedure or program, should not become involved, unless they know their financial plan. For God to be God, he needs nothing, and God will direct. He is able to handle any amount of money. About three-hundred thousand people in America make over 1 million a year. If these and others believed in God's method of His support, the tithe, God could still handle that much money!

But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

Proverbs 1: 25- 28