June 26, 2020

#1755

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass  withered, and the flower thereof fallen away: (Peter 1:24).

No airplane can do what a sparrow does. God gave man the intelligence to build an airplane. But, a plane is a very poor substitute for the maneuvering of a sparrow. AND, "God knows every sparrows fall" (Matthew 10:29). 

This writer doubts very seriously if God knows pity on the fighter pilot who shows no pity on his adversary.

In the lifetime of this old man, in spite of the wisdom of man, I have daily seen the portrait painted, pertaining the survival of mankind. Today, a few days after the Summer solstice, 2015 (the two moments during the year when the path of the Sun in the sky is farthest north in the Northern Hemisphere (June 20 or 21) or farthest south in the Southern Hemisphere (December 21 or 22)). The US Supreme Court handed down the most diabolical decision ever made in the history of America, Destroying the sanctity of marriage, the first established sacredness of God, after he designed human beings of different sex, man and women. 

Satan, always ready to take advantage of a situation, using the agenda of perverts, using the agenda of population control, has now forced upon the American people, forced acceptance of same sex marriage. We will see how long it takes the Liberal Theologians, the social religionists, those that have always found that with Christianity, as well as with the business world, as with international diplomacy, you go along to get along, the mantra of political correctness. 

Just yesterday, I lunched with two officials from a Baptist children's home. We discussed the phenomenon of orphans and foster care. I expressed to them the supernatural phenomenon, that I have observed my entire life, the bonding of children with their biological parents. We read and study about abuse in a home. Abuse of children by parents. And yet, there is an indescribable bond dynamic between a child and parent. As they said to me, "No matter how bad the home, no matter how good the foster home or the orphanage, the child still wants to return home."

"No matter how horrible has been the abuse of a parent, physical- psychological- sexual, the child will not talk of it, and still wants to return home." It makes no difference how many men another man will marry or, how many women another women might marry, no two men and no two women can produce a child. And certainly not a child with a bond between them. 

The most mixed up young man I have ever known in my long life, and many such young people have worked for me, both in the military service, and in civilian life, the most mixed up- confused- seething in decadents, was a young man raised by two lesbians. This pretender president, these pretending politicians, want to talk about love. If you want to see real love, parents for a retarded, or terminal sick child. If you want to see real love, as I have several times in my life, a husband who cares for a terminal sick wife, or a wife who cares daily for a husband with Alzheimer's.

God, in his infinite wisdom, we need not ask why... It is his business. Will have some people live a long time... Cant live, wont die. 

One of my friends, his wife at home, small children in school, he holding down a regular job at Sears, had a bed ridden wife. A neighbor or family member would go into their home and check on her during the day. But it was up to him to care for her otherwise (bathing, medicine, physiological stability). It was up to him to clean the house, clean the children, cook the meals, he had a full time job night and day. But he loved her and his children to much to let up one minute. As in our relationship with God, it is a love affair every minute, 1440 minutes in a day, everyday.

You don't think about vacations or retirement. 

I still remember the time before nursing homes, hospice care, even the present day methods of sanitation. It was the challenge of a husband- wife, other family members, concerned neighbors, concerned church members, to keep life worth while to those in a rapid retreat from life. 

This employer has had his fill of young people, who know nothing but cheap love- cheap sex- expensive addictions. I have known too many who, would rather lay on the bed and sleep after a night of carousing, boozing, addictive happy hour behavior, instead of getting up, going to work, and making a living.

This world traveler has seen, from one side of the world to the other, flora (weeds- bushes- trees), growing from cracks in rocks... Roots just stretching down towards nourishment. Loving life, reaching towards the sun. This is real love... Love of life. 

Every night of my life, I sleep on a very old, four poster bed. This is the bed in which my grandparents and parents slept... Normal people, male and female. Human beings who had enough love for life, to produce children, and more important, to raise their children.

The Supreme Court can issue as many edicts as it wishes. But no court house will ever change the love bond existing between parents and children, God and his precious children, precious human life, his chief creation.  

June 24, 2020

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

                                    In His Steps                                                                   June 16,2020



My friends and all those who know me, my sickness, my future as I comprehend it. My doctor tells me that the cancer has taken over so, we can expect death to take over and I want all of you to know that I am well with this.

I am more than convinced that prayers has kept me going on, there are so many that pray for me daily, I have received letters from 10 pastors who stated that they are praying for me also. This is the different that so many of our fellow Christians that don't understand that the very one we pray to for our needs, wants at anytime this most precious scripture comes to mind Hebrews 4:16 " Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need". I pray that we can all learn to pray with all integrity to our heavenly father. What will I do day after day if I didn't have the assurance of his blessings that everyone that pray for me. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.

Sincerely
Dr. Thomas R. Morris

June 5, 2020

John Piper:

But as for me, I would seek God, And I would place my cause before God; Who does great and unsearchable things, Wonders without number. He gives rain on the earth, And sends water on the fields. Job 5:8-10

If you said to someone: "My God does great and unsearchable things; He does wonders without number," and they responded, "Really? Like what?" would you say, "Rain"?

When I read these verses recently I felt like I did when I heard the lyrics to a Sonny and Cher song in 1969: "I'd live for you. I'd die for you. I'd even climb the mountain high for you." Even? I would die for you. I would even climb a high mountain for you? The song was good for a joke. Or a good illustration of bad poetry. Not much else. But Job is not joking. "God does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number." He gives rain on the earth.".  (https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-great-work-of-god-rain).

Most of us choke on the fumes of judgment; we so like to judge one another. Three and a half trillion dollars spent each year in America on health care, which amounts to about $10,000 per person. I don't know how long we can keep this up but we should be glad that we live in a country where its citizens have health care available and we should not easily judge those who spend our tax dollars on frivolous psychological "troubles" or run to the emergency room for just anything that comes up. It is so easy to prevent, so easy to be careful about eating/sleeping/working. I am a great believer in supplements such as vitamins, they're cheap and really do work. Of course, Western medicine, our Western medical schools teach young, health care professionals, "that as long as you eat a good diet, you do not need supplements". Who eats a good diet anymore? All the good minerals have been extracted/leeched from the soil. Surely you can look at the groceries, the counter with vegetables and see that most of them were just hanging on, "mostly alive when harvested".

My main "gripe" with harvested vegetables, the poisons that were sprayed on them in an attempt to control parasites. Needless to say, some young people do not have the intelligence to wash well, their lettuce/cucumbers/peppers/beans, etc., before using them. Not only should they be washed well but soaked in a solution of water and vinegar. I cannot imagine anyone eating a salad that has not been thoroughly washed or anything else that hasn't been thoroughly cooked. Heat still destroys most bacteria/parasites. If you want to know how clean the food that you put into your "temple"; examine it with a magnifying glass.

I must depend on someone else to prepare my food, buy it at the store, etc.; I like vegetables with boiled eggs. One of my assistants brought in a bag of salad mix. I said, "make sure you wash it well". She said, "I think it is already clean, right out of the bag. I see them put it out at buffets, right out of a bag". I said, "get a magnifier and look at all that trash and all of those bugs in that salad mix plus chemical residue". I thought she was going to "throw up" on my food. Since I graduated from the university, almost 70 years ago, 88 new chemicals and chemical compounds have been produced to put on food crops. And we wonder why people get sick...it is not just a small amount but a cumulative effect that does damage to the body.

Rat poison is mostly harmless cornmeal, it is that small amount of arsenic that kills the rat and the genome of the rat is just 5 degrees from that of the human species. Your writer was raised on a farm. My daddy used to say that something was trying to eat everything he planted from the time he put the seed in the ground until the very last. What did our ancestors do before all of these chemicals? They let the birds, chickens, etc., take care of the problem. One of my great aunts had her flock of turkeys trained to walk down the rows of any garden or crop field and rid the plants of insects. She did not spend her time watching soap operas on television, dreaming of having a relationship with one of those "he-she's" that were so good looking, so cute. Like most of the world, television actors pretending to be someone they are not; the doctors on television could not put on a band-aid. I doubt if Martha Stewart has ever seen a butter churn.

We are all living on the corner of function and dysfunction, having lost the ability to think with common sense...now too lazy to even look at a wristwatch, rather we ask Google what time it is; too lazy to even write a complimentary note to anyone about anything. It is so easy to use a cell phone. What are we doing with all of this time we are saving? Do you see anyone, anywhere, involved in God's mission, his work, his ministry? How well I remember the saints at our country church, cleaning their own church, cleaning their own churchyard...and then going to the graveyard and cleaning it. Most of today's young people have not set one foot in their ancestral graveyard, have no idea about the lives, the DNA, that they have inherited.

The greatest forfeiture of the people I know, millennials, baby boomers, even the elderly; a lack of humility. We think we are so smart, take so much pride in having all these blessings of healthcare, technical advances, just dumped in our lap. Pride is the beginning of every sin and we are so proud of what we have accomplished. I never knew my maternal grandmother to get into a car without talking about how "good it rode". You see, she had known bumps in the road, weather beating in the buggy. Even when I was young there were so few paved roads in Eastern North Carolina (highways 17 and 301 going north and south, highway 70 going east and west). Intimacy with God brings humbleness. You function better when you realize that all the power, grace, mercy, of the creator of the universe, available just as much to you as to anyone... this gets you through the difficulties of life and living.

When you consider your hardships, think of our blessed Lord's mother, nine months pregnant, riding on a donkey. Most church people today have the "Pilot's" syndrome, we know what is right but we just want to wash our hands of the entire matter.

Dust and Decay

June 4, 2020

Dust and Decay

“Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.” ― Socrates

Loneliness is as accurate a predictor of early mortality as smoking cigarettes. Already, at age 87, I have explained my certain mortality from the disease of cancer. The loneliness of laying in bed gives you much time to think...I have had such an active, remarkable life...academic, military, professional, financial AND THEN, I reached down for a bottle of water by my bed and fell off my bed. My constant companion on my bedside table, Mr. Google Chrome, to whom I can ask any question, such as the population of any city anywhere, the temperature of any place on the earth; any scripture reference; any well known quotation; any telephone number and he says nothing, such as, "what are you doing trying to kill me?" Can anyone even imagine, in my lifetime, where, when I was young, a typewriter was a great invention, you can speak into a "technical marvel" on my bedside table and someone was smart enough to come up with such a development which can answer any question without even a pause. All I have to say is, "Mr. Google, what is the temperature in Perth, Australia? and he immediately replies, "the temperature is 60", no hesitation, no pause, an immediate computer answer. And so it is with anything this marvel of technology. But when I fell, however, he said nothing; my nurse came running and got me back on the bed.

The miracles of knowledge, that someone could, with the human mind, develop such technology. C.S. Lewis said you are never too old to set a new goal, dream a new dream. Modern technology for today's technology scientist is like finding 4 grains of sand on the seashore amid trillions of grains. The average person on a bar stool at a bar's "happy hour" has no comprehension of the ability involved in brain activity, such as analyzing the chemistry of microfibers, such as the physics and mathematics involved in calculating the bending of light rays entering water. This Dr., scientist, retired Army Lt. Col. must confess, here and now, first time in my life, that mentally enshrined in a world of so much knowledge, in order to pass an exam involving the world of quantum physics knowledge I was allowed to use a "tables book" in my exam so that I could look up certain mathematical determinants. I put "cheating" in the book, certain equations and formula's which I knew would come up and which I knew I had not memorized. Little does the world know of the knowledge involved when one has a doctorate such as knowing about the ability of an insect the size of a grain of rice to fly 1000's of miles to pollinate certain plants...transporting material on the insects legs...the ability to determine this DNA under the lens of a microscope. Such dust particle knowledge just keeps piling on, forever, and then, as the poet said, "you die and it all decays". As Shakespeare said "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

So well I remember the day we young, Army, officer, Dr's, filled an auditorium for a lecture on forensic detecting. We were told then that technology had been developed in microbe warfare, where 1 drop of a nerve gas was potent enough to kill everyone in that room. This was over 60 years ago before Russian/North Korea, started using such for their purposes.

We are stupid enough to think that everyone is born with our values, our God given sovereignty of "trust". We trust a piece of paper from the doctor, writing that no one can read and take pills we believe will help us. One of my ex-employees told me that in a restaurant where she worked, if a serviceman/policeman/fireman, anyone wearing a uniform came in, they would all spit into his food before it was delivered to them. Tutsi/Hutu warfare, 1 country, Rwanda, 300,000 killed, mostly with machetes, almost as horrible as the American Civil War where 600,000 were killed mostly with swords.

Hate, mindlessness, has not changed in spite of technology. All life is built around trust, trust that people will believe what you say or write. Trust that you will get what you order and pay for. The human experience of trust is like a holding a small bird in your hand; too tight, and you kill it; too loose, and the bird flies away. You trust others to obey traffic signs, the mechanic who works on your car; the pilot in the cockpit of the plane you are on; the surgeon standing over you in the operating room with a knife.

So, the dust of experience accumulated day after day, year after year and, when you have learned to appreciate human weaknesses as well as human strengths. All this accumulation ends in decay...no matter who you are...your status in life, your joy or challenge of living. How can anyone with good sense desire to spend eternity with the distrust and the hopelessness of decay? If anything would cause a human being to desire salvation the joys of eternal life, a free gift of the Creator of life, it is that certain sovereignty/love and kindness from the Creator of life. Thy love and kindness is better than life. KJV PSalms 63:3.

Interrogating the Interrogator

June 2,2020

Interrogating the Interrogator

Would thou still stand before me? , asked God, 
If I can no longer wash thy sins. 
Would thou still read my scriptures? , 
If I can no longer offer thee a place in heaven. 
Would thou still sing my praise? , 
If I can no longer grant thy selfish desires. 
Would thou still want to meet me? , 
If I no longer have my magical powers. 
No! Never! , said Man, 
Otherwise, I am not Human. 

Pradeep Dhavakumar

Our most valuable possession, our soul created for our conversation with God. It has been my experience in dealing with believers and nonbelievers that our greatest failures, we talk with God but do not listen when God talks with us.

Possession is far greater than professing, and we all have had our days of doubts and fears when all we need to do is just TRUST JESUS.

One of my first experiences in learning to trust Jesus, freshman college student, UNC-Chapel Hill, there at this great university, where I was completely unprepared for any college (from a small country school, 13 in my graduating class, less than 100 in the entire high school) but, there I was competing with the states best from large city schools/prep schools/wealthiest, most powerful families in the state and, it was necessary for me to work as well as take courses. My money had completely run out and my job (at the medical school) was not to pay me for several days and I needed money for food.  I was sitting on a stoned fence behind the Wilson Library, across from the Bell Tower, interrogating my interrogator whether I should call my father to come get me. I knew there was plenty of food at home. Having been given this great opportunity for education and, for the first time in my life, feeling that I was truly where I should be for mental challenge I was so ashamed to give in and give up. But, I told God, just as Job told God, "though you slay me, yet will I trust in You" (Job 13:15). God said to me, just as if he were speaking from the Bell Tower across the street, "in the library of the medical school where you work are large leather chairs. Money falls out of the pockets of those who sit in those chairs, you might want to search those chairs". And so, that night at work, (I worked in the medical school library) I found enough money to keep me going for many days. And so, from pulpits in churches, speakers platforms at civic clubs, my message has always been "though I have failed God many times, He has never failed me". And, now at age 87, body eaten up by cancer, a totally blind veteran for 50 years, I still listen when He speaks.

I was raised in a country church, built 1874 by great-grandparents on both sides of my family, fortunate enough to have known many saints in the family and community but I do not remember as a child, ever hearing preachers talk about this. What a shame that today's parents, today's church members, today's preachers do not talk to the disabled/dying about listening as well as asking. It is like the phrase, homeless veterans, there should be no such person as a  homeless veteran. What is wrong with the veterans groups, American Legion, American Red Cross, BVA, DVA and even churches and civic clubs who put out so much propaganda about their concern for veterans, not yet, has 1 veterans group, 1 church, 1 civic club ever come to my front door about helping me with anything but that is all right, God reminds me every day that He is all I need and we all know the assorted story about veterans administration ineptness. As a medical officer, army hospitals, veterans hospitals, politicians, they just don't care.

No matter what has happened to you, life cannot be afforded. you just thank God for life and living. I write on a piece of paper my prayers and 1 line is always there "take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee".

Yet, there must be laughter and enjoyment along with responsibility and the serious side of life. There is nothing wrong with enjoying good food, a good joke, good entertainment, even good clothing and an expensive car or expensive home. God does not bless us in order for us to live like paupers. He expects our best and will load us down with His best. I have seen ships go through both the Panama and Suez canals. They do not always wait for the locks to completely fill with water. There are times when God allows us to cut corners. We are all waiting for 84,600 seconds a day and He does not expect us to keep our nose to the grindstone every second; have some fun/a hobby. Just remember at the end, you cannot relive/purchase back 1 second that you have just thrown away; not even if you have as much money as Oprah or Bill Gates and his wife.

When you get my age you realize just how short life is but for believers we have already started living an eternal existence. This is just a "boot camp" here on this earth where God is determining if He wants us around forever, if we are worthy of His Glory. Just think, the Creator of the universe, the power, grace, mercy who through the stars into space, can measure the Himalaya's with his fingers, who actually took time to dictate a book for us live by "The Holy Bible". And most believers do not even take the time from a life of frolic with unbelievers to read and rejoice in this answer book...the 1 book in the world that has answers to every question, the 1 book in the world that tells us about a Savior by whose life we obtain salvation as a gift, by whose birthday every check/every document is written. Millions of dollars are spent each year by mystified human beings seeking answers from a psychologist or psychiatrist. One of the greatest mysteries of the modern day church, to a member or other having problems, a believer in God sends them to someone who does not believe in God to get an answer. God has told us "Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).

My only child, my son, seminary professor, for many years a missionary on the mission field, said that on the mission field, an illness, new believers would pray before they even consulted a doctor. One of the last times I was ever in a churchhouse, a men's bible study, and they were all so happy to have me there. I began to feel like I was going to pass out. Patients have told me that when they get that feeling they soon hit the floor. So, I said to the fine man sitting next to me, I am very ill, I must leave. I apologized to the group and told them I was too sick to stay. The entire group began to pray and by the time I was driven to my house I was fine. 

God can heal cancer if he chooses to do so. "For with God nothing shall be impossible" (Luke 1:37). And to think there are so many so-called believers who never go to the Lord's table. "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes, we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5 King James Version)