Wash Pot

The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, And rescues them. O Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. O fear the LORD, you His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want.… (Psalm, 7-9).

We skate on very thin ice when we consider-promote the foolishness of fairness.

The richest man in America, Bill Gates, and his ten rules of success, stated in rule number one, there is no such thing as fairness. You can have all the silly programs such as "No Child Left Behind" and yet, final analysis, some brains are wired for greatness, some, mediocrity, and others just plain stupidity. How is it possible that a black child, from a ghetto, a mother with a third grade education working several jobs just to support two sons could produce a black boy such as Dr. Ben Carson? Of course he read, studied, but he had the synapses in the brain to bring greatness. History has been punctuated by greatness in lives of musicians, canvas artists, writers, even a few politicians and athletes. Why was Billy Graham such a great preacher? God definitely instills in some the character-wisdom and desire to do great things. Character determines destination. Too many do not comprehend their resources, in the race, take their eyes off the finish line-goal by paying too much attention to temptations and bystanders along the way. How many Christians pray each day not to be lead into temptation?

We even have the malarkey of globalism, "New World Order” as promoted by the Bush's, 41 and 43. Such elitist people... Bush's, Kennedy's, European royal families peeping around the corners of world poverty, think that they can bring all civilizations to a common level, it will never happen. Even Jesus said, God-Man, who created the world "For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always" (Mark, 14:7).

Napoleon said, "Graveyards are full of men who thought they were indispensible." Deliver us from the comfort of prosperity. Pastors, politicians, even poets who have never known what it is to work for a living, who have none of the scars of life. This writer has always enjoyed shaking the hand of a working man-callused-rough. (I wish I could have seen my parents before they were put in the ground. But, the funeral director did put my hands on their hands, hard working hands, neither having never known a manicure).

The founder of IBM, Thomas Watson, puts signs all over his buildings, with one word, THINK. In a world of "canned" messages, "talking boxes" most people I know just refuse to think. A certain advertisement states "The mind is a terrible thing to waste."

Most have never considered the basis of our nation's wealth. How did we get here, the world's super power, our industry-transportation-universities-hospitals. My ancestors landing on these shores in 1677 had nothing but a few tools they could bring over from England on that small ship, the good ship 'Kent'. They had to eke out an existence. They had, what they wanted most, freedom and the right to worship God as they pleased. True liberty comes with a knowledge of Jesus.

God created everything that a man would ever need. From his hands, to our hands, we can tell the story. The caretaker of the planets, has given us every good and perfect gift. He put in the soil the elements necessary to grow crops, into the earth, minerals necessary for industry. God endowed the earth with plant life, good water, even harbors and rivers for transportation. Most of all, he put into the minds of mere mortals the ideas and motivation to produce. Early Americans mostly produced for their own needs, but then started the indispensible idea of all mankind, the marketing of excess. Money is only made by buying and selling, commerce. AND, from profits, stores were built. Roads and bridges were built. Necessity is not the mother of invention, laziness is the mother of invention. Families were too lazy to care for their sick at home, to educate their children at home, to sew their clothing at home. So, we have public hospitals, schools-industry and, of course the government got into the picture with their zealousness for regulation-taxation-strangulation and a democratic republic, which enjoyed every blessing of God, has become a hodgepodge of manipulation.

This old blind veteran, old school, raised on a dirt road without power-phone-water lines, has seen the world totally change in my 85 years. I remember that every home had a "wash pot." The large black iron wash pot was used for the family laundry, at hog killing time, it was used to produce the lard. My mother-grandmothers-great grandmothers, all women produced soap in the wash pot, it was called "lye soap." Interesting its production, fats that had been saved from the kitchen, mixed with lye (Sodium hydroxide and water). It was cut out in pieces. The pieces used for laundry-cleaning-washing your hands. Store bought soap was called "sweet soap." Can you even imagine one of our modern-educated-manicured wives preparing, much less using, lye soap? But, as was the case was everything, our ancestors were self sufficient, they knew how to survive, they used the elements which God had given to us to live... growing crops-animals-fiber. Our schools produced ambitious-egotistical-gifted men and women who could produce the equations as well as equipment for industry.

The moral fabric of the universe has been tied together by purposeful, probative, even profiteering men and women, who, with the guidance of their Creator have established the finest life systems known to history. We may debate about proper lifestyles, but we can never debate the fact that we enjoy the comforts of prosperity. It was enough to see my ancestors to do laundry in a wash pot, before refrigeration, so careful about cooking. I do not want to see any young mother keep her baby's bottle down in the well so the milk will not spoil. But, God deliver us from those who would destroy people they don't like from encourageable drones. We have taken human nature out of warfare, God help us to not take his grace from daily living.