#1942
Maxine's World
I do not mean by a
Christian any person who tries to live decently according to his lights. I
think that you must have a certain amount of definite belief before you have a
right to call yourself a Christian. The word does not have quite such a
full-blooded meaning now as it had in the times of St Augustine
Science is very good at answering the questions, what and
how, but never why. Most human beings
have never realized the blood and water that gushed forth from the heart of
Jesus, crucified on that cruel cross, a cleansing of mercy. I so love the Catholic Church because of its
emphasis on the crucifix...every place of worship, every classroom, every
hospital room. When active as a speaker
and visitor in so many evangelical churches, I seldom saw a cross. Since childhood, I have always worn a cross
on my jacket. I truly believe in the
mercy of the cross, bringing all of our suffering-sorrow-senselessness to the
cross. Too many who claim the name of
Christ, stumble at the foot of the cross.
Those who take up the cross daily, cling to it. There are things that are none of our
business, to which we must cling and clang because of the holiness of God...spiritual
protection, all sufficiency of the good Earth, on which He chose us to
live. God did not wait for us to deserve
His love and the greatest comfort this old, blind man can give you, "I
will never leave thee nor forsake thee."
(Hebrews 13:5) We live in a world
of feeling, forgetting facts, "If it feels right, do it."
At other times, other articles, I have talked of my working
my way through eight years of university education selling Bibles door-to-door
during the summer months. I was on a front
porch showing a "sample" family Bible to a black woman who was just
acting interested, I had also shown her the most famous children's bible story
book known to man "Aunt Charlotte's".
All of a sudden, she picked up a big stick and hit me across the
shoulder and said, "I want this demon away from my house! I am pastor of the Holy Tabernacle at the
edge of town; here you are showing me pictures of Jesus and others. Don't you know that this is heresy...just as
stained glass windows in the uptown churches?
Or even Jesus on the cross? Noone
knows what Jesus or any prophet looked like." I was busy getting my stuff off her porch as
her daughter asked her to calm down but I have heard just as critical remarks
from evangelical pastors concerning figures in Catholic cathedrals. Many years later, I thought of these
consistent inconsistencies as I looked at the great rose window in Paris, Notre
Dame Cathedral or the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel.
The more you listen, the more you learn. Mark Twain said that all he knew was what he
read in the newspaper. This blind man
learns so much through modern electronics...the radio, the talking box. Our ancestors considered hard work and true
worship as their goal toward the rewards of Heaven.
Today's youth, bombarded by fakery-hypocrisy-injustice. The world's richest man, Bill Gates said,
"Life is not fair." Yet, it is
those involved in criminal activity who usually have the image of success.
Today's student sees how women such as Hilary Clinton, Oprah
Winfrey, Representative Nancy Pelosi, and Senator Dianne Feinstein are among
the world's richest women...cutting corners, deceiving the public in order to
get elected to high office. Many do not
have the common decency of showing intelligence. Voters in the Los Angeles area of California
continue to elect Maxine Waters to Congress a woman who recently embarrassed
the most stupid among us by saying, "And the fact that he is wrapping his
arms around Putin while Putin is continuing to advance into Korea.” In Maxine's world because of your political
influence you funnel millions of dollars to relatives...after all; it is just
tax dollars. Most women in Congress are
rich because of tax dollars.
God wanted me to see before my blindness, in impoverished Eastern North Carolina , the hard work, sweat, tears of my
mother and grandmothers. Later, Tran
Siberian Railroad trip, London to Hong Kong, when
you reach the border of Russia ,
the gauge on railroad tracks change (this was a large part of WWII problems
involving Hitler's attempt to conquer Russia ). I still had a shadow of vision at that time,
I saw Russian women change the wheels on trains that had been jacked up...women,
axle grease, moving huge iron wheels so that a long train can continue on the
Russian gauge railroad. I had seen women
carrying jugs spending their entire day just to find drinking water in Africa . In India , I
witnessed a pregnant woman working in the hot field, then spreading out a
cloth, squatting giving birth to a baby, wrapping the newborn in cloth which
was on her back, then placing the baby in papoose style on her back, and
continuing to work in the field until dark.
Does God see the difference in Maxine's world of ignorance and deceit
and these hardworking women caught in the net of gross hardness and
harshness? Does God care? Did God care about Jewish slaves in bondage
to the Egyptians for four hundred years?
The most challenging action of life for the twenty-first century
Christian, is to see others as Jesus sees them...the idol worshippers, those
who are addicted, whether drugs or other interests, made in the image of
God-chosen for life, to see others as Jesus sees them. One famous tune..."Loving You",
"Loving you is easy because you are beautiful." Life's challenge, loving God's most
magnificent creation, mankind, when not beautiful...when handicapped, when
disabled, when addicted, when sick or near death. The most challenging scripture in God's word,
"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself." (Matthew 22:37-39)
Have you met my God, He chose me for life, gifts me
everything I need, and through simple belief in His son assures me of eternal
life with Him? Have you met some of my
neighbors...sinful, bitter, and stuck-up?
Have you met any of my family members, patients, pastors, physicians, so
unconcerned with the world-so wanting to just be popular-not Christ-like?
In your doubts and fears, He just requires trust, just
think, the Creator of the universe, the one who threw the stars into space,
willing to put on a tent of human flesh and lay as a baby in the poverty of a
feed trough. It is
poverty-humility-suffering that transforms human souls.
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