unintended consequences

#1748

"One of these days, the ground will drop out from beneath your feet
One of these days, your heart will stop and play it's final beat

One of these days, the clocks will stop and time won't mean a thing
One of these days, their bombs will drop and silence everything"

There was a time, even from the "talking box," when their was reason, even sanity. There was such marvelous TV shows as Laurence Welk, Roy Rodgers and Dale Evans, the I Love Lucy show, even Uncle Mitty or Arch Bishop Sheen.

There was a reason why the most sinful even the most ignorant among us took pride in knowing their was goodness in the world... That everything was not on the back streets- red light areas of our town. Even to a world traveler, we knew that Satan had placed blackness in the souls of some people. In some third world countries, their were cages near the street, were fighting roosters were kept. The traffic activity-noise, kept the roosters, "pumped up," just as fighting dogs were kept pumped up by human beings, with souls, being mean to them. What possible satisfaction can a human being get from seeing animals fight one another? often to the death. But, likewise, what thrill can another human being get from planes or drones, dropping explosives on innocent mothers and children. And yet, from one side of the world to the other, Americans want other cultures to admire us. Even desire our form of liberty. Is Iraq any better off today, than it was when America first started interfering with their lifestyles, their religions? Did the thousands of young people who fought there, die in vein? As now we must do it all over again. If we are to satisfy the manufactures of war who are still supplying both sides in all military conflicts. This is Americas greatest economy booster. The building and supplying of war materials to everyone all over the world. Most of the nations fighting wars in the Middle East, do not have the technical abilities-raw materials, to build a bicycle. I know, I have been there. In spite of their religious inconsistencies, their un-American way of doing things, they just want to be left alone. 

In my world travels. I was on some remote islands in the south-pacific. Somewhere, that these sightless eyes cannot find, I have pictures to prove this... Natives, dark skin with blonde hair- blue eyes. There were cultures of these tribes on several islands, completely different from other natives of other islands and their people. My guide told me that a Scandinavian ship had wrecked their many years ago, and in the course of biology, the native women had been seduced by the blonde Scandinavian sailors. In today's world, this type matter of geography and biology does not seem strange as you question your own sanity involving same sex marriage, in their movement- agenda, in those involved in perversion, to stay on the front page on every news outlet. 

The fiction writer can look into the future, can prophesy and dramatize present day events but just think of the scar tissue involved in explaining unnatural- immoral lifestyles to children. Children born of natural honor and love. 

This old blind writer- veteran, often thinks that he is not the only one running blind. Many of us tried so hard to live decent- responsible lives. If only we had the opportunities afforded young people today. I still remember the first Christmas I came home from college. I was hitchhiking, almost totally frozen. Two men, a truck, loaded with Christmas trees, stopped to give me a ride. I crawled up in the back of that truck, with all those Christmas trees. On that truck ride, I don't know which was shaking more, the trees or me. Today's college students, with their superior high-school preparation, grants, subsidies, allowances, do not know what it is to want for anything. But, neither do they know how much debt is on their head, as they look onto the future. Many of them have debt from school expenses, but more have the debt facing them from the tyranny of a country that has sold their future down the river. 

Keeping wars going all over the world, like a Cancer eating away at the body, its just slow death. In the human body, their is at least one trillion cells. It just takes one of those cells to go crazy, start a meiosis of insane division, and you have cancer... Slow mythological death, but always with the same ending. 

The slow certain destruction started in my parents lifetime. My mother spoke at my uncles funeral, an officer in the Spanish-American war, that war started with the sinking of the Maine in the Havana harbor of Cuba. WWI started with the sinking of the Lusitanian, probably by the British, to force America into the conflict. WWII started with an attack on Pearl Harbor, for which America had been for warned. We all know the foolishness- silliness of the 9-11 fiasco. Now, We see nothing in the future except endless wars, endless atrocities, eventual executions by terrorists, on the American soul. 

Americanism

#1747

What thoughts are conjured in the mind of any human being?.. Surviving the rising tide of evil. Sometimes you feel like the windshield, other times the bug. When we are young, we feel as abrasive- powerful as a windshield. As we age, the golden age, which should be the best, we feel more like the bug, being smashed and "flicked" around.

As a totally blind veteran, your government first took away my identity... Then, my security, and now, my dignity. When you don't have family, when just about everyone else is attempting to see how deep they can get their hands in your pockets, you wonder if it was all worth while.

I was born on a dirt road, no power, no phone, no inside water lines, as with everything else in Eastern NC, "just a Democrat party stronghold of poverty. From a country school with 13 in my graduating class, I was blessed by God to get to the university, and by working at night, going to class during the day, sometimes starving, I matriculated through 8 years of university training to have a "DR" in front of my name.

Then, the war, all doctors draft, and I am back at home, having jumped through every hoop and barrier, the government through my way, depending on the largess of government and others. Never any prospects for real family. Your real friends dissociate themselves from you, "out of site out of mind." You manage to survive, day after day, you refuse to be a victim, because you are a victor in Jesus Christ. He assures you over and over, "I am all you need." So, a man with a brilliant mind, at one time able to chase a blood sail throughout every pathway of the human body, I made a living buying and selling junk. It was difficult to forgive those who worked for me, those who stole from me, those who stared at me, but, I look forward to the time, eternal time, that I will be normal again. 

The Plight of Phobias

"The only thing to fear, is fear itself." -FDR

John MacDuff, very consoling
Play Audio! Download Audio

   ~  ~  ~  ~

Do not be afraid, for I am with you!

(James Smith, "The Believer's Companion in Seasons of Affliction and Trouble" 1842)

"Do not be afraid, for I am with you!" Isaiah 43:5 

The presence of a friend in trouble is cheering and consoling. But it is too often the case, that our friends, like the friends of Job, prove to be miserable comforters. They do not enter into our troubles--or they cannot help us. The advice they give at times--only aggravates our woe, and adds to our distress. 

But, believer, your God says, "Do not be afraid, for I am with you!" What a thought is this! God, the great, the glorious, the omnipotent Jehovah--is with me!
With me to help me, 
with me to comfort me, 
with me to sanctify me, 
with me to save me, 
with me as a kind benignant Father,
with me in every place, in every trouble, in every conflict,
with me through all my journey and for evermore, 
with me on the bed of sickness,
with me  to hold communion with me,
with me to listen to my sighs,
with me to number my tears, and
with me to secure me from all injury! 

Appearances may be very dark; the night may seem very long; and your pains, weakness, and fears may be many and great. Still, if the Lord is with you, you may sing, "Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty--yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!" Habakkuk 3:17-18

   ~  ~  ~  ~

We have published J.R. Miller's insightful short article, "The Blessing of Quietness".

The word phobia added to a word means "morbid fear of." For instance, if you are sensitive to sunlight, you have photophobia: xenophobia, fear of other countries: claustrophobia: fear of small spaces. It is truly amazing what words can do to add to or subtract from ones vocabulary. One political campaign, some years ago, the opponent hired a man to stand at the edge of each of his opponents speeches, and just say these words, "You know that he is an octogenarian." Of course it only meant that the man is 80 years old, but, to the un-initiated, everything is obscure. And the man lost his race because everyone thought he was a pervert of some type. The word fear is used 365 times in Gods word. The 1189 chapters of the bible, the chapter just halfway, Psalm 1:18, the mid verse of the entire bible, " It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man." All god requires of us is trust. My question, always, how does anyone live in this world, without being able to trust in God? You certainty cannot trust in anyone else. If you have one friend whom you can trust completely, you are a very blessed person. This writer has always been a loner, perhaps, and because, I learned early in life the heartbreak of betrayal... The fact that I found so few people with whom I could put any trust. You could put your feet under the same eating table with family members your entire life, and still find that you cannot trust them. Particularly when it comes to the division of your parents estate. You can sleep in bed with a wife or husband, and learn later, what real hatred is all about when you go to the divorce court. Or the custody of children.

Even Jesus bride here on earth, his kingdom, his Church, mostly grows with addition and often subtraction, multiplying by dividing. Some of the worst comments I ever heard from people who are supposedly created in the image of God, came from the members of dividing Churches.

For those of us who are disabled, who must depend on others just to stay alive, life's greatest disappointments involve caretakers to whom you pay good money, whom you trust, pilfering through your property and taking your things. For the blind, you never realize your losses. We must cling to the "blessed insurance" that the God we serve is able to take on our fears, just as he is able to take on our needs, that he is able to subtract from the thieves, as well as add to those who have been harmed by theft.

Fear probably adds more stress to the homeostasis of an individual, that any other neuron stimuli. I am convinced that most strokes, most cancer, most heart-attacks, cripple and kill because of stress, and that stress because of fear. Most of the things which we fear, fire- vehicle or plane crashes- heights- depths- starvation- etc, never happen. The Christian, of all people, should not have such fear. He tells us that he knows every sparrows fall, that the very hairs on our head are numbered.
"And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin" (Matthew 6:28). ^" Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?" (Matthew 6:26).

Perhaps it was like that with Alexander The Great, or even those troops with General Joseph Stilwell. There is no fear like battlefield warfare. It is beyond my comprehension that parents will spend the time and money, give the loving care which they give to their sons and daughters, and then send them to useless wars, which give great financial profit to the elates who keep them going. These young people, mostly just old enough to get a drivers license, not old enough to drink alcohol, often away from home the first time in their life, never having been exposed to the harshness- brutality of mankind or even animal life on any level, see their friends battered- bruised- butchered, right in front of their eyes. Many are often physically battered themselves, but if not physically disabled, mentally and psychologically disabled for the rest of their lives. And then, the talking heads, people who make more money in one month, than most Americans make in a lifetime, cry great crocodile tears about veterans, and what they have given to their country. The Veterans Administration is the greatest fear of every veteran, the family of every veteran. The most inept agency of federal government it laments about veteran suicide. Face the facts; the VA would like to see every veteran commit suicide... Get them out of the way. It is far, far cheaper for VA and the government to bury every veteran in a cheap casket with a cheap flag, than to give every veteran healthcare and a pension. Believe me, I know. This old blind veteran never got so much as a white cane from the VA. Found my white canes at junk stores. It took 50 years for VA to send me a machine that could read books to me.

The fear for you, the public, your treatment is on the way.

#1734

Need for Shepherding

"Savior, like a shepherd lead us,  much we need thy tender care;  in thy pleasant pastures feed us,  for our use thy folds prepare.  Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus!  Thou hast bought us, thine we are."

He will carry the lambs in His arms!

(Arthur Pink)

"He will feed His flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in His arms, holding them close to His heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young." Isaiah 40:11 

Our Lord has . . .
  many weak children in His family,
  many dull pupils in His school,
  many fearful soldiers in His army,
  many lame sheep in His flock. 
Yet He bears with them all, and casts none away.

By Christ's gracious aid, the believer is preserved from being totally submerged by his doubts and fears. 

By His renewing operations, the spark of faith is maintained, despite all the fierce winds of Satan which assail. 

By His mighty enabling, the sorely harassed and groaning Christian is kept from sinking in abject despair. 

By His quickening power, hope is still kept alive, and the voice of prayer is still faintly heard.

There is no danger of the individual saint being overlooked amidst the multitude of supplicants who daily and hourly present their various petitions--for an infinite Mind is as capable of paying the same attention to millions, as if only one individual were seeking its attention!

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are . . . Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Hebrews 4:15-16

 Dr. Morris, world traveler, has seen shepherds in the 20th century. Both in Africa, and the Scandinavian countries. I remember talking with a Shepherd near Bergen Norway. He talked about how dumb sheep really are, "That he must keep his eyes on them all the time." Of course, Christianity was a foreign language to him, but I said, "We are all so much like dumb sheep, so easy to stray, we so need direction."

In my personal life, I so need direction, so wish I had a shepherd tell me what to do with most decisions I have to make.

I was talking with two officials from a local University just yesterday. I said, " I get so tired of these paid advertisements about how people should respect veterans, do you know the VA pays the NFL and other sports programs to tell the public how they should respect veterans? The VA does not respect veterans at all, they talk about the disgrace of so many veterans committing suicide (3 each day). The VA would like it if all veterans committed suicide, it would be so much cheaper for the country to buy a cheap 'tin' casket and a flag, and burry every veteran. Instead of the continued expense of sick care, such as it is, at a veterans hospital." I have written about this before, and will not go into it again. The insult to the veteran, and the embarrassment to the nation, is the VA "sick care." Each time a VA doctor asks me, a totally blind- 100% disabled- Medical officer veteran, if I have any thoughts of suicide, my reply always, "everyday." But that gives me the opportunity such as the opportunity I get in every area of life, to present my Christian testimony. Because, without flinching, "my faith keeps me going." I did not wear the uniform, to get free healthcare. In fact, I keep paying for my healthcare. Not that I have not paid for VA care, but my civilian doctors want me to keep coming to them.

In the poverty ridden home were I grew up, and the images just as vivid now in my blinded eyes, as it was as a child when I could see, there was a picture which my parents had acquired early in their marriage, of Jesus carrying a small lamb next to his heart. I used the scripture above, I would always say in prayer at any church or institution were I was asked to pray, that we can "find grace to help in time of need." Our faith is all based on grace and I so need that grace to walk blinded in faith. "For we walk by faith not by sight" (Corinthians 5:7)

#1732

Narcissism

Vanity and narcissism — the compulsive need to be admired and praised — undermine one's courage, for one then fights on someone else's conviction rather than one's own.

    Rollo May - Man's Search for Himself (1953)

Most of us make the mistake of weighing and measuring others with the same scale and yardstick that we measure and weigh ourselves. When this writer lies down to die, he wants to think and remember that every fellow human being he ever met, anywhere, on his many trips around the world, even among his most personal associates and family members, that in the souls of them all, whichever way they went, Heaven or Hell, that their was some goodness in the soul of all of them. Please don't let me think that I was narcissistic enough to judge anyone else, when I was only a sinner saved by grace. 

When Hitler started his book burning, attempting to cleanse the third right, everything bad in his nation, the first book on his list was the biography of Helen Keller. There have been many great person hoods in the history of the world. But, perhaps no person as great as Helen Keller... A women born deaf, and blind. Most of us who heard her speak, could not understand anything she said. But, other than Jesus himself, few people have had the influence on the lives of others that she had. 

Is it a coincidence that she is buried in floor of the National Cathedral, in Washington DC, right next to president Woodrow Wilson, who has been declared the most Narcissistic man who ever lived. It has been said that president Wilson was so narcissistic, that he wanted to be the bride at every wedding, the corpse at every funeral. A more recent president, William Clinton, is said to be just as narcissistic... That he wants to be the commanding prescience in every room that he enters. We have all known people so narcissistic, that way, because they were blessed with good looks, A truly gravatosk personality, or had in some way become powerful because of money, or ancestry, or brain accomplishment. Lets face it, their are those who just stand out above the crowd. 

God despises pride- narcissism, he allowed the children of Israel to wonder around and then die, for forty years in a wilderness desert in order to "humble" them. Jesus, God- man, God who put on a tent of human flesh and lived among us, said in the most famous sermon ever preached, "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5).  Paul said, "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves" (Philippians 2:3). Would it not make 21st century Christians, Christians so despised by the world, feel better, if Jesus, when harassed by Pilate, and his unlawful judgment, had done some small miracle, such as a swarm of bees going in circles around Pilate's head, and showing the accursed Roman leader, as he has always shown the world, just who is "boss." But would it have made any difference? Those Romans who arrested him in Garden  of Gethsemane saw him restore the ear to the servant of Malchus which Peter had cut off with his sword, and it did not seem to have any affect. Jesus broke up every funeral procession he ever met, healed the sick, fed thousands, with one boys lunch, still he had very few followers. I am convinced that only his resurrection  made an eclylsmic change in the lives of  his disciples.  Jesus, Paul, saints throughout history, "those of whom the world is not worthy" (Hebrews 11:38), were humble in their greatness. Many humble grandparents, teachers, pastors, neighbors, have died never knowing their influence on someone's life. Those who have had the greatest influence on this old blind veterans life, have not been people with power or money, but those with a humble and contract spirit.  

This old soldier found that veterans don't talk about the war, they just get over it. The healing profession should be more humble, our immune system is all we have going for us. The poisons we put in our body from most doctors, generally do more harm than good, shutting the healing process down. Effectively killing the kidneys and liver. This old veteran, world traveler, is made happy knowing the enjoyment of life by others, than in the darkness- loneliness- exasperation of his own. I have concurred the feeling that I had contributed something to the world. I believe there is healing in forgiveness. I have forgiven the employees whom I was paying good money to help me, as they were stealing from me. I have forgiven the many dealings with people who I knew had only one thing on their mind. Whether a real-estate transaction, car repair, or even shoe repair, "how much money can I get out of him." It was my business that I have lived so frugally, never bought anything unless it was on sale. I once found a Kennedy silver half dollar in the mud, it was so ugly, but I washed it and it shined. That is my hope and joy. I have been so rotten and dirty, like everyone else in the mire. But, Jesus took me up and washed me of all my narcissism, even my sinful nature. 

#1731

Dysfunctional

A young man working for me, age 34, wife and four children had lost his job in construction. I employed him to repair and refurbish buildings which I had been delaying.

He had been reared in a home of spiritual unbelief, his wife a cradle Catholic. They had decided that their children needed spiritual guidance. There was a large mega-church close by which some of their friends attended. So, on a Sunday morning, the family went to church.

He told me they enjoyed the band and the music. (this is one of those new, liberal “play-church” activities, drums and drama, bells and smells) They became thoroughly confused when the congregation had a communion service, the bread and the wine. I was not sure that these modernistic congregations even observed the Lord's Supper. The recurrent ordinance of the new testament church, the greatest act of the Christian life next to the initial ordinance, baptism. I fought any minister or pastor conducting this most important of all worship services, in not describing to visitors and even long-time members the importance and significance of this memorial service... which in most congregations is observed to infrequently. This worship should be observed often. This writer observes this act every day of my life... the taking of a taste of wine in thankfulness for the remission of my sins through the shed blood of Christ, the taking of a small piece of bread in thankfulness of the healing of all sicknesses and infirmities. Jesus bore all our sins and sicknesses on the cross (Isaiah 53)

This particular congregation boasts 31 pastors, one, just responsible for lighting effects. The adverb worthiness apples to the action of this faithfulness... memorial service. Pastors should make sure that this spiritual act is the greatest action in the Christian life, not a dysfunctional practice.

President Obama has declared the 112th Congress dysfunctional. My unsolicited advice to him, the entire American government, dysfunctional, the American education system, dysfunctional, the law enforcement-judicial systems, dysfunctional, all media activity, print-electronic, dysfunctional, healthcare, Big Pharma, dysfunctional, commerce-industry, dysfunctional, military services, dysfunctional. Above all, something that the founders and saints of old would never believe, religious-spiritual structure of the nation, completely dysfunctional.

THE WORD IS REDUCTION. Nationwide, the lifestyle of the American family has been reduced $1,315.00 this year. Every college, the large ones and the small ones, speaks of remedial study, reduction. High School graduates, unable to perform on a college level, matriculating simply because, to date, someone is paying the bill. With all our knowledge, research, billions spent, new developments, the advertising of drugs is more effective than the results... one of two males with cancer, one of three females with cancer. It was Viagra, now testosterone, then compliance to defiance, then 11% of the population on stress reduction.

Amazing that the Wall Street Occupiers, Capital punishment protestors, equal female rights promoters, defenders of children, are so quiet when one nation is blasted off the earth with aircraft, a national leader is assassinated. (Libya and Gadaffi) When did the attitude of capitalism, free enterprise, democratic spirit of compassion, lead to the destruction of the dysfunctional, through the force of drones and the farce of deceit.

To show the effectiveness of Obama's dysfunctional leadership prowess, the following American cities are in bankruptcy, the capitol-Washington,DC, the 2^nd and 3^rd largest cities, Los Angeles and Chicago, Detroit and Cincinnati and even Honolulu... a tribute to his leadership, his bailouts, his sell-out to socialism. Private investors, hardworking tax-payers, refuse to finance socialism. Europe is dying, bankers and tax-payers expected to take a 60 percent loss because of Greece. June, 2011, $826.5 billion owed on credit cards edged out by college student loans in the amount of $829.7 billion. In many states, 50 percent of family homes “underwater”. (more owed on mortgage than home is worth) Who is saying what about whom, dysfunctional you.