The Thrill of Easter

We should be thrilled to know there is a God much greater than the one we believe in.  The true Easter message, we can bury our own mythological ideas about God.  His Holiness/greatness are far beyond our understanding.  But, who could worship a God that we can understand?  Because He was willing to put on a tent of human flesh, dwell among us, die for us, allow us to join Him in His resurrection from the dead we might even conceive of Satan standing by the "Broad way" saying, "those are mine" and Jesus standing by the narrow way, stating with great delight, "these few saints on the narrow way are mine".  (KJV Matthew 7:13-14).  

The thrill of Easter "again, like Christmas, defaced by commercialism with rabbits laying eggs/and now like small children now, adults having egg hunts".  The consolation of leaving a saved loved one in the graveyard BECAUSE, like every other promise of God those who have believed in the saving grace and sacrifice, and resurrection of His son will also resurrect.  And, the soul which instantly goes to Heaven or Hell at death will be reunited with the body whether the body was buried in dirt, in the ocean, or cremated.  We must learn to believe in a God of grace and glory that is beyond anything that we can comprehend; not a generalized God who walks around as a police man but a God of power, grace, and mercy who has the very hairs of our head numbered; by whose stripes we are healed from any disease (KJV Isaiah 53:5) and life's greatest consolation for the believer, His promise "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee" (KJV Hebrews 13:5); a God whose tender embrace knows every one's name.  Just think, we mere weaklings, human beings entrapped/tethered to our own "smartness" think that our wisdom is greater than that of God.  We want God in our image, not ours in His.  We like chocolate rabbits laying colored eggs.  We like a "bell-hop" God, one we can call on, only in time of need.  We want a God who is happy if we show up to worship Him one hour to the week, often dragging in late, even giving him a few tips when the offertory plate is passed, having the audacity to sing with real believers "my Jesus I love thee, I know thou art mine".  We do not want to be different in language/dress/activities.  We think God was joking when He said "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31 King James Version (KJV). 

Personally, I resent the "unsaved world" taking over our Christian Holy days making them secular holidays.  I had a member of the millennial generation doing some typing for me; I asked the question, "why are young people so unconcerned about life and living?"  She said, "We are just indifferent to it all".  I asked a black woman who works for me, "what is taught and preached in the black churches?  Don't they realize their numbers in prison, etc.", she said, "they simply don't care"...such a price Jesus paid "for it all". 

Satan has already driven the Christian message inside places of worship and very little worship goes on in the church house.  Our churches are more like civic clubs.  Look around your church and see how many crosses are on the walls.  Even the Catholics have begun to remove crucifixes from their walls.

We must get real in our belief system, in this day of casual death "abortions/euthanasia", Christianity must become real, the miles Mary walked from Nazareth to her cousin Elizabeth's house, I judge 750 miles, the millions of Jews walked along with Egyptians to take Jacob home for burial, The miles Thomas walked in crossing the Himalayas to India; there to die at Madras from a Brahma sword, Dr. Luke hanged from an olive tree in Greece, Bartholomew, skinned alive, Mark, dragged through the streets of Alexandria, Egypt, Paul beheaded, Peter crucified, the youngest disciple who joined Jesus at age 17, boiled in oil then exiled to Pat mos and there have been many others, then until now on this side of the cross, "(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth". (Hebrews 11:38 King James Version (KJV). 

Our ancestors had little light at night, but read the Bible, the answer book.  The Jews had no light, little methods of writing or reading, could not understand that Jesus would rise on the third day.  If they had understood, they would have been at the grave yard, waiting.  So, nothing surprises God, 2000 years ago or now.  Nothing surprised Him on the other side of the cross, the beguiled children of Israel or the 7 nations they had to conquer.  Nothing surprised Him before the flood of Noah, when everyone was doing what they wanted to do but, when the rains came and the water reached their nostrils, covered the highest mountain tops, and those who were saved along with the animals He chose to save, floated away, they had reason to believe.  Our time will come.

Happy Enough

Do not allow circumstances to frighten you.

Do not allow situations to torture you.

Look beyond the appearances.

Yours will be the unmistakable happiness.

-Sri Chinmoy-

Thank you, God, for loving me more than I loved myself. No acts are greater than the action of giving. Believers are faithers, faith is a verb, action based on belief sustained by confidence. No words give God more pleasure than the attention lavished on the poor and to those socialists, "do-gooders", even Jesus said, "the poor you have with you always" (Mark 14:7). When this writer, world traveler, stood with the Cuban delegation at the May Day parade, Red Square, Moscow, and the workers marched and the same in outer Mongolia, and the same in China, I knew then, as I know now, behind all their fake happy smiles, Communism is not enough. This is my answer to anyone who finds so much fault with the Western way of life.

Most of the real poor in this world live below the 30th parallel, Africa/South America/Asia. The poorest Americans live better than most people in the world.

This writer owned a condominium on the east side of Manhattan, New York City, for many years. I would spend about 1 week a month there. It was near the UN and I was friends with UN officials. I became active in a group called Volunteer Services for Children (wealthy New Yorkers who sponsored shelters or orphanages all over the world for destitute children: victims of war). One Saturday I went to a meeting of the group held at the Hilton Hotel on the Avenue of the Americas. The taxi driver would help me get into the building and from there, I would take an escalator, I could find the meeting room. One Saturday I had to go the "men's room" during the meeting and got turned around, lost my bearings and went to a groups' meeting in another room. Of course, they greeted this blind man very warmly, at the time were having coffee and doughnuts. It was a communist workers union group. One man said, "we are going to hear Gus talk this afternoon at another meeting, we would like for you to go with us since you are a traveled, Army officer veteran". By then, I realized I had made a wrong turn but saw I had nothing to lose by meeting Gus Hall, head of the Communist party in America and Presidential candidate. So I loaded into a taxi with them and went to a meeting on the West Side. I have never heard such vitriol against my country. He described, how an entire city, any city, could be burned down overnight. He called it "cigarette lighter, draperies and bed spreads fire".The plan of action, the wind just right, enough ice picks in the tires of fire trucks, enough windows broken, draperies and bed spreads set afire, just how quickly an entire city can burn down. The opportunity/responsibility/security furnished every American citizen, does not make people happy...just not enough.

I have found that most young people have a sparkle in their eyes when they talk about technology/idealism of socialism do not have such when you talk about salvation and even eternal life. They just don't believe there is anything to it, that life here on this earth is all there is, that what they endure here is enough: that the wisdom of this world is enough: that the wealth of this world is enough: that the thrills of this brief life here on earth is enough. Those at "happy hour" in your local bars and clubs, this very day, alcohol/strange music/perverted sexual experiences are enough.

Today's university student actually believes that only those things can be believed that are found in a test tube. Steven Hawkings, who died this week,  most of his life in a wheelchair, communicating through a voice synthesizer, with all his brilliance (considered to have the greatest mind since Einstein) thought that this world was enough. NOW HE KNOWS. He could have had eternal life, joys forever, where there is no ALS; where he could have spent eternity with ascending, not descending, people; where he could have lived in brightness, not darkness, forever (people who love darkness rather than light, John 3:19) but Steven thought that the fame and notoriety that he had found here on this earth because of this great gifted mind given to him by God, was enough...NOW HE KNOWS.

In speaking of unbelievers today's advances are not enough, constantly talking and planning on what comes next...a more remarkable telephone/car/sexual pleasure, never just content with anything. Inventors do not invent just for more money. Most of the upper 3% who pay most of the tax, already have enough. The builder of a bigger/better airplane does not have the goal of having robots fly the plane into the side of a mountain, a bigger/better car/driverless cars piled up on the highway/hospital operating rooms with robots in scrub clothing.

Who are the gatekeepers? Who will finally say that the human persona cannot be removed from life; that God wanted SOULS of men whom He chose for His eternal companionship.

Not until 1914 and the entrance on the world stage of National Geographic did the world not know much about "far away places with strange sounding names and their fellow man who lived there".

You appreciate the fickleness and cynicism of old people when you get there. It was not until I was in Chin Yang, Manchuria, in a communist hospital, body parts being transferred from healthy, Chinese prisoners to sick people, that I understood the importance of old people having overcome the horrors/terrorism/disappointments, of their fellow man and they could still laugh. Hearing now, almost daily, horror stories of shootings and other calamities we know that being happy, even if only for a few minutes, hours or days, will have to be enough, while on this earth. For the believer, rejoice, the time of sublime happiness is just ahead. Whatever your problem, the nation's problem, Jesus has always been at the crossroads of life before we got there. 

Life is Tough, AND THEN, you die, AND THEN???

                                     

...the anvil and the hammer to tear my soul;
the fire and the metal to mend my holes;
the blacksmith forging straight ahead;
to create this man before you instead;
the truth is my body is strong and pure;
seems the sculptor had given the cure;
but the sculpture is still an unfinished piece;
no eyes to see and no heart to beat;
to become the masterpiece I have to become;
the sculptor is myself and my hands must be strong;
cause self isn’t made by greater powers;
it must be forged in fire with an anvil and hammer.
https://allpoetry.com/poem/11760800-The-Anvil-and-The-Hammer-by-The-Marcellian

Often when you think your life is over, you may just be getting started. The anvil wears out many hammers. God is still on his throne in spite of the world, flesh, devil. Truth is truth whether anyone believes it or not.

I have been thinking much recently about those who simply refuse to believe in God. I have recently developed a painful/aggravating hernia on my abdomen (a bulge about the size of a large egg, my oncologist tells me that no surgeon is going to use a knife on me at my age and in my cancer condition). It brought on the thoughts of a family who lived near us and my talking with the oldest son in the family who, with his wife and 2 boys, lived in a house near his father's house. He had brought his wife to me as a patient. She attended church along with the boys but he never did, like his own father. Here was his excuse for not believing in God; I grew up seeing my father drive his car down to your church to take my mother who was a devout believer and then he would go back to pick her up. In my father's house, I had a younger brother (whom this writer remembers sitting in the sun on the front porch). He died at age 14, never having spoken a word, just a biological organism who was changed and fed by this dear woman. This older brother of this unbelieving father said, "the pastor of your church never went to our house the first time and never showed any interest in my mother's plight in caring for this totally invalid child and, the so-called Christian community showed little concern when our family's house burned down. How does a God of love permit such unloving acts and can this excuse my father's unbelief and consequently my own unbelief."

This son had a very painful hernia, which, as far as I know, he lived with his whole adult life, doing hard work. The thing aggravating him constantly and he, unable to come up with the funds to have anything done about it. On a farm, working in rain/heat/cold, with the insidious pain that irritates any protrusion, such as a hernia, one can easily understand why you could easily hold God responsible for problems which people from the beginning of time have endured and, why would one child of a perfectly normal loving mother, never speak, never enjoy anything that normal children would enjoy...just a burden and more important, everyone at that church saw her faithfulness in going to church; knew about her unbelieving husband and yet, no one, not even the pastor ever showed she or her family, Christan benevolence.

Dealing with suffering is a great teacher. Only a very small percentage of the population of the world never experience suffering, often used as an excuse for unbelief. Dr. Victor Frankel, himself a Jewish doctor prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp, said it was only the inner man, the want for survival, that got you through this life. The prisoners in the concentration camp knew that all they had to do was run towards a gate and a guard from the guard tower would shoot them dead and their suffering would be over.

Once we know the 'why' of living then we can concentrate on the 'how' of living. Those who are disabled, those who understand inequities, know that God is ultimately in charge; it is just a matter of trusting Him. Blindness has been my greatest blessing because I am much closer to God now than when sighted BUT I have the mental ability to understand this. Who would have ever known Helen Keller if she had not overcome both blindness and muteness? When Hitler started his book burning her book was at the top of the list to be destroyed. The first people to be destroyed were the disabled/gypsies/hospitalized. God put the first man and woman He created in a perfect world, a perfect environment. He made only one provision in His dealing with mankind "don't touch that tree!". Man has always rebelled, and mankind has always paid the price.

How can anyone doubt God any more than you can doubt history or the world around you? We could easily use Pascal's wager instead of attempting to persuade the unsaved about the love of God. Pascal said "what do you have to lose by believing, if you believe and it is true you have inherited eternal life with God in His Glory. If it does not turn out to be true and you do not have a soul, your body just becomes fertilizer, what have you lost? You lived a life of beautiful absolutes. The absolutes of right and wrong, of loving one another, you win either way".

Christianity is not completed, just tough. Belief in God is a matter of the heart. He will draw you if He wants you and He is perfectly willing to accept you just as you are, willing to forgive every sin which you are willing to give up.

Reverend Billy Graham

Billy Graham R.I.P. (rest in peace). Your writer is from the Billy Graham generation.  He was a part of the family.  Sightless, I could not watch the funeral service on television but I listened to it and 1 of my assistance described everything to me.

Every Christian should be so profoundly appreciative that the service not only honored this great preacher but every speaker/prayer/song, so completely honored Jesus Christ.  Most of today's millennia's have never worshipped under a tent, or a brush arbor (tree limbs over a large area protecting you from the sun and rain).  Even in the wealthiest Manhattan skyscrapers Jews still use such for a type of worship, celebrating, not forgetting their time in the desert.  I worshipped under a brush arbor in Africa and went to many tent services here in eastern North Carolina.

The service was truly worthy of the man and the Lord who he served.  I was told by 1 of his assistants with the association during the many crusades, that they had to be so careful about everywhere Billy stayed making sure there was no one with satanic purposes which the media would have devoured; above his hotel room, below his hotel room or on either side attempting to get into his room to embarrass him and the Christian world.  No one ever heard 1 word about Graham's lack of integrity...perhaps his 5 children who spoke were a testimony of his influence and devotion in his own family.  Nor, was there attempt at extravagance in his burial.

The world will little remember the lives of most Christians.  So many worship services have become just big productions.  I so loved the preaching ministry of Dr. R.G. Lee, long time pastor, Bellevue Baptist, Memphis Tennessee.  In these sunset years of my life I regret that he was self-centered.  I would hear him say, "If I tell my people to jump in the river, I will hear water splash.  If I tell my people to jump in the fire I will smell clothes burning".  Humility/meekness is a grace which Christians should learn early in life and this writer/speaker had a very hard time learning it.  I've often considered this when I saw a pastor head for the foyer to shake the hands of those in the congregation and get their praise for his sermon.  If truly effective they should have been weeping and many times, a truly knowledgeable Christian should have walked out of some services where the preacher did not understand what he was talking about.  I suppose most of us were content to sit there and pray for god's mercy.

I believe more unsaved people are touched or face death and their own souls' salvation at a funeral service such as the Billy Graham service than any revival meeting...where; so many times it is just a matter of signing a card (joining the church), perhaps even baptized.  I truly believe that those watching and listening to the Billy Graham funeral service knew that the mans faith was real, that Jesus, his power/grace/mercy/salvation, are real.

My parents never kept any of the realities of life and living from me and death is a part of life.  I still remember the 1st funerals as a very small child.  Before the time of antibiotics, around 1943, there were so many deaths from even simple diseases.  My mother's best friend, Rosell, died from the flu and I remember standing with her at the grave sight.  Death, the grave, the grave yard, was such a mystery to me.  In later years, I spent much time studying grave yards, my ancestral names, the dates, that hyphen between the date of birth and death, wondering what the person was like, wondering about their problems.  I rejoice in knowing that my family, the church where we worshipped (built by my ancestors in 1874) did not hesitate to emphasize heaven and hell, that there is no neutral place just as this Billy Graham service. 

One of my funeral home friends tells me that death has been greatly sanitized, that most families no longer even go to the funeral home.  "Just put him next to 'the cheapest casket you have and cover it with the church pall', no one will see the casket anyway'.  They don't even want to look at the deceased member; they just want to get it over with".  Jesus wept when his friend Lazarus died.  Today, the saved have reason to rejoice/celebrate when believers die because "Jesus paid it all, in his death on the cross".

I was at St. Mary's Catholic cemetery in London where I had searched for Francis Thompson "love is a many splendored thing".  A simple casket covered with an American flag, pulled on a cart followed by a woman in a wheel chair, pushed by a Catholic priest was the entire funeral cortege.  I went back to the gravesite where the workmen had already started throwing dirt on the casket.  I reached down and took her gloved hand, "I am an American".  She handed me the battle flag which had covered the casket.  The priest said, "She is not very cognitive but appreciates you being here.  They met in WWII and she was in a nursing home, separate from the 1 where he died.  Soon they will be together again".