Next, Christian Flag

#1753

There's a royal banner given for display

To the soldiers of the King;

As an ensign fair we lift it up today,

While as ransomed ones we sing.

Refrain:

Marching on, marching on,

For Christ count everything but loss!

And to crown Him King, we'll toil and sing,

'Neath the banner of the cross!

In the countryside were this writer was raised, hard work-hard times, just God fearing, working, tax paying believers. We did not have time to embellish our thoughts with the history that surrounded us. We knew that God was the designer of sacred geometry (everything in balance, sacred biology, life of every animal and plant precious in his sight and useful for man kind). Everything had a purpose, God makes no mistakes, there is no such thing as a rebel molecule. 

Most of the farm land was owned by relatives, and it had been handed down for many generations. I had often asked my parents about a certain area of dead, wild, bushes in the middle of a big field, which over the years, tenants of the land had just plowed around. An area probably about forty feet squared, over many years, many storms, trees once there, large bushes, just a big snake pit. 

Some years ago, a cousin who had inherited the land, decided to either find out what was there, in this discarded graveyard, or just return the area to a productive part of his land. When he began to cut- burn, he found that there were two remarkable tombstones in the area, tombstones of our ancestors, veterans of the Civil War. Two of my great-great-grandfathers sons, Nathan and James Morris, both of whom killed the same day during the Civil War. It was strange that these two were not buried with other family members in the family graveyard. 

It is quite possible, my ancestors were large land owners, they could have afforded to have the bodies brought from Virginia were they were killed. It is also possible, since my ancestry dating from first landing and founding of Morris town NJ in 1677, were not active in the Confederacy. Perhaps this is the reason that the family church, then (1874) and until this day, is known as the "Union Grove Church," and effort at reconciliation. It is quite possible that these two sons, more than other family members, were sympathizers of the southern cause (some historians have called the North-South conflict a matter of slavery, others a matter of taxation). whatever the cause, these two sons chose to fight with the Confederacy, and died as confederate soldiers. 

I am surmising that their loving, grieving family, chose to bury them separate from other family and neighbors, for some unknown reason, we will never know. Young men of the South, fought and died for what they believed. Just as for some unknown reason young men of different factions of the same religion (Islam) fought and died in Iraq, and Afghanistan. One of the bloodiest conflicts of the 20th century, involved Iran and Iraq, Muslims killing Muslims. We do not know what type of flag they fought under. 

The flag of the Confederacy, seems to be more a matter of concealed altruism, in more modern simplistic minds, who just want to be rebels. 

Rebels have never conquered anyone at anytime. There must be more to idealism than rebellion.

Do we really think removing any physical-outward symbol, cleanses any thought?

Stinking thinking, is still stinking thinking. 

If the presentation- Parading of the stars and stripes, the American flag, does not stir your mind, then their is something very wrong 14 inches away at your heart. 

The thing that bothers me most about the removal of the Confederate flag, and whatever it symbolizes to some people, is just how long it will take for the same "book burners" to remove the Christian flag from Christian churches and Christian sinners around the world. 

We believe there are about 300,000 Christian churches in America today... Some great mega edifices, some just store front places to worship. Some churches are very evangelical, some very modernistic... Just country clubs with steeples. Almost all Christian churches, because we uphold the liberty of our patriotic, as well as our Christian liberty, have somewhere in the building, usually at the front, both a Christian and American flag. Many of my Christian friends, who did not wear the military uniform, have their casket covered with a Christian flag when they die.

How long will it be until these same élites who want to control everything, according to their own bias thinking, want the Christian thinking removed from Americana. 

Then, how long will it be before these Elites, who usually have no political or religious loyalty, will want "old glory" removed from the American public square, and anywhere else that it might offend them. 

The road to Hell is paved with empty religions, just formalities and rituals. You can get the same in a civic, or fraternal group. 

Christianity is supernatural, when a Christian, in a supernatural way, you become a new creation. This is the problem with the present day church, present day believers, who pretend to be Christians. Most have never had a supernatural experience. 

When you have a supernatural experience, the Holy Spirit of God (Birthed in your heart), the Christian flag means much to you. 

For those who have known the thrill of the stars and stripes, even on an embassy in a foreign country, or on an American ship in a foreign port, there too, is a supernatural thrill.

Perhaps Nathan and James Morris in that forgotten graveyard, knew loyalty to the Confederate flag. At least, they are buried in the land and near the family the loved. 

Rubric

Rubric is a word seldom used, so very important, particularly, for those of us (obsessive-compulsive) about always showing the best version of ourselves, an authoritative and correct way of doing things. Why should just the Mafia be rubric in their activities?

This writer has learned in a long and eventful life, that you either are or you are not. I am a rubric victim, exacting, compulsive, routine in everything. Some men can fall into a vat of manure and come up smelling like a rose. For the rest of us, life is hard work, disciplined. From childhood, I gave the best version of myself, mentally and spiritually. There was no time for foolishness. More than once, I overheard some “ne'er-do-well” say, “who does he think he is?” I so remember Mr. Marriner, big wheel in the church, had everyone fooled, after I had spoken at a meeting, used those exact words. He thought a deacon was free from adultery, bootlegging, sport's addiction. His wife and children knew his hypocrisy, even if others excused it.

On his radio program, Michael Savage interviewed Donald Trump about his most recent book, Time to Get Tough: Making America #1 Again. Trump, one of America’s most influential and powerful men has written many books well worth“digesting”, he knows what he is talking about, money, real estate, politics. He is a prime example of what ONE man can do with ONE life.

I owned a Co-op apartment in Manhattan, a few blocks from the Trump Tower on 56^th Street. His tower is a New York City landmark. One day I had a friend walk me into this building, brass and glass, and describe the interior to me. He told me about the limousines pulling up to the doors leading to the elevators and the Trump penthouse. In his books, in interviews, he makes no secret of his ambitious, egotistical, disciplined life... the humble beginnings of his family, immigrants, the hard work of his father. Trump's income tax reports are in the book, he is not secretive about anything, net worth over $7 billion, low debt. Like other financial giants of this nation, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Mellon, he had a plan and knew how to work his plan. He has little patience with insolence and laziness. One does not get to the top by thinking small, laying around, complaining.

They gave great honor to their fathers. It should be noted that 85% of all prisoners come from fatherless homes, that America spends $100 billion per year to compensate for these fatherless homes.

Even in a corrupt system one can still succeed... just don't confuse success with celebrity. In this world of political-correctness where charisma and popularity will get a hip hop, rapper, or howling politician to the top. At a time when government grants largess, lying and stealing is more important to the scientist and academic than objective research, it is good to know that there is still room for diligence, honesty.

Books later, books written by real investigative reporters, Americans learned how they have been manipulated about many things... Japanese intrigue and entanglements in the skies of this country involving WWII, what really happened at Roswell,NM, Pearl Harbor, Waco, TX, Murrah building, the real truth about “911”. At a time when the world feeds from photography, when children carry cell phones which take photographs in their pocket. Who will ask the questions, why are there no photographs of the imposter in the White House... as a child, marriage ceremony, college? Why is there no photograph of a plane or aircraft parts at the Pentagon? Why is there no photograph of a dead Timothy McVeigh? Even the witnesses do not believe he was executed. Surely with deaths such as Bin Laden, where so much skepticism is involved, around the world, every cynical attitude must be nailed down with photographs.

Wikileaks has disclosed irrational diplomacy. We know that the game is fixed on Wall Street. We play “footsie” with dictators (Emperor Hirohito, the world's richest man, Stalin, Bin Laden) BUT, Why the criminality of global warming, Travel Security Administration (TSA), open borders?

Elderly citizens have little expense until their final illness. Elderly people need little food, have enough clothes and furniture. The house and car are usually paid for. Those over age 85 are the most rapid growing segment of the population. Why should young people, those “slammed” by every expense of getting started, be hammered and nailed, by the RUBRICS of excessive regulation and taxation?

The Common Man

A visitor to the White House, during the Lincoln presidency, found president Lincoln sitting on the stair steps polishing his shoes. Answering the inquiry about polishing his own shoes, he said, “I wear them”. Perhaps Lincoln is considered the most popular U.S. president because he was a common man born in poverty, lost eight elections, including the 1858 run for U.S. Senate, just two years before he won the election of president, 1860. He failed in business twice, the girl he was to marry died, his son, Todd, died while he was president, revealed the dream he had a about his own death before he was killed, proved to himself and others that he was, in every respect, an uncommon man.

It has always been the common man, showing courage, who became the uncommon man, always, the son's of the poor who died on the battlefield. Before Colonel Gaddafi died, $200B in the bank, Saddam Hussein billions in the bank, Osama Bin Ladin, millions in the bank, or even a man like Prince Charles of England, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, George Soros, billions in the bank. Why the difference in these men from the ordinary common man? Is it a matter of blessing, luck, time, geography, or family birth? Evil or good, decent or corrupt, why do certain men stand out above the crowd?

Questioning such must have occurred to everyone. As a university student, sitting in the football stadium, looking across the stadium at the dignitary box (directly across form the press box on the 50 yard line), having seen the limousines which brought these elitists to the game, I thought, “what goes on up there, what does it take to get there?” Over the years I have learned, been informed, by those who are in that group. They were fat cats, power brokers, of state political and social activity. Mostly blue bloods, born at the right time to the right family, often selling there souls for preeminence. They first dined on the finest foods at the famed university athletic club, then welcomed by state and university officials into the viewing box, where the best in hors d'oeuvres and drinks were provided. I understand that even in private stadiums, box seats for the rich and famous are provided, from which they can look down at the common people. Visiting La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy, I was shown the royal box from which royalty could view the opera and look down at the common people.

It has always been that way. The first 5000 years of man, until the great flood, Gentiles. Then God chose one race for Himself, the chosen race, Jews, Abraham, the first Jew of this chosen race... just gentiles and Jews until the Cross. After the Cross, Christians, Gentiles and Jews.

Before the Cross and after the Cross, wars and rumors of wars. Perhaps someone always asks, who really won?, what did we learn? If history has taught us anything, man's inhumanity to man, the suffering of innocent people, innocent animals. Among the casualties of WWII, Italy invading Ethiopia. The son of Benito Mussolini, pilot, described the bombing of Ethiopia, a nation without planes or warfare equipment. He said dropping bombs on the Ethiopian army riding horses, was “like seeing a beautiful rose come in to bloom”. The worst thing I ever saw was a brazen Canadian pulling back a mother's scarf showing a baby still nursing at the dead mother's breast. But, we expect the common man who has experienced warfare to pick up the pieces and move on with his life.

In the American experience, next to slavery, the shame of this or any nation, one man owing another, as great a shame, the treatment of disabled veterans and handicapped citizens. This writer, a totally blind veteran, never given a white cane by the government

Most common people just wanted daily bread. Man, through books and movies, have always recognized the Avenging Blade of God. In Europe, during the black plague, some church parishes were almost wiped out, one, 1700 dead, 170 deaths in one week, one church. God has never lied about anything, He will always have the last word.

It is not a matter of civilization or education, 40% – to 50% of people in America believe in ghosts, only 20% in Africa... a continent of voodoo, fetish, witch doctors.

The history of America has been highlighted with lurid headlines concerning corruption in every area of our existence. Wall Street to Main Street, military profits to bailouts of bankers, to sellouts of athletes. Such prolific, protesting, patriotic writers as Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, brought to the attention of the American people the whore-dom of politicians and lobbyists on the Potomac as well as the profiteering in the slaughter houses, buying and selling of college athletes...even until this day, college athletes, who cannot read and write, enjoying the splendor of college life because of their athletic prowess, not academic ability.

I have never understood where the atheist, agnostic, the pretenders go for explanation. The salvation of man, through Jesus Christ, grace through faith, is so simple and so easy to understand. It is a matter of sin's ruin and Christ's redemption and, even those who profess to believe cannot understand. Just as the veil of the temple was rent, top to bottom with the atonement of Christ, so our sins, which God hates, are forgiven... past, present, future, in our repentance, once and for all. If we as Christians, believers, are truly repentant, new creation, born again, it is not necessary to ask over and over for forgiveness, we have been forgiven. This is the gift to the common man, from his designer, his manufacturer, according to the manufacturer's handbook. (The Bible)

Confederate Money

#477


In my world travels, I have crossed India several times. Mark Twain said, “India is the ultimate travel destination”. I stayed at the Maharajah's palace on an island in the middle a lake in Udiapur. I well remember the carvings, the walls of some rooms spattered with precious stones. The thought never escaped me of what life must have been like for those at the top of the cast system, a country, where, even when I was there the death wagons would go around on the streets each morning picking up and carting off the homeless who had died on the streets during the night. In this country of over one billion, people with a religion featuring many idols, the lowest cast, born on the streets, living their entire lives on the streets, and then dying on the streets...never a home, each day's quest for just enough food to stay alive.

I come from humble beginnings, poverty which most people have never witnessed, but always had the security of a family, a home, was never hungry except trying to get a University education, but always with the blessed assurance of knowing that I had a creator much greater than the creatures on whom I had to depend...parents, teachers, friends. Fortunate enough to be born in country where my only limitations, like your only limitations, are those that you, yourself, put on yourself. I will never forget the high school principal speaking to the seven boys in my high school graduating class (there were 13 in my graduating class) when he said, “You boys can be anything you want to be, you are Americans”. I have tried to get this thought across to every graduating class, high school or college, it has been my privilege to address.

This country's most disastrous war was the Civil War...when 630,000 of our finest young men, on both sides, were killed. All wars until the Korean conflict were very personal...largely hand to hand combat. Even WWII, when 50 million were killed, many warriors died of bayonet wounds...eye to eye conflict with the enemy. War has become very impersonal when you drop powerful bombs out of powerful planes, and even more recent, powerful bombs from unmanned drone planes..operated like a war game from thousands of miles away. But, destruction is horrible for the innocent, the mothers, the children, the elderly, the disabled, whether in a place of warfare or an earthquake.

I sold a painting, some years ago, which I had acquired, of some beautiful birds, and it had been re-framed at a famous gallery in Philadelphia. I did not get enough money for it, because I realized, after the fact, that it was an art piece stolen during WWII, probably from a home in France or Germany. News casts have been littered with accounts of stolen art treasures...Swiss bank accounts or the impossible protection of wealth in a time of war, or even financial upheaval. Foreseeing the eventual collapse of the Western economy, the power brokers of the world are already getting and grabbing everything of value on their side of the ledger sheet. American's with any sense of reality left should know that the thieves in government who have put America as well as the rest of the civilized world in it's present financial status are looking out for themselves and their friends. They have emptied the treasury of the United States. Next will be the large state and local retirement funds. Most corporations have few retirement funds left. They have already thrown their long working, retired employees to the wolves...the enslavement welfare checks which come from the government. One Senator advised this totally blind, 100% disabled, service connected, medical officer, veteran, who lived as frugally as anyone could live to get his education and become a source of specialized service to the government, to go to the department of Social Service and ask for food stamps. In the totalitarian control system of Communism which the Democrats have voted to inflict on their fellow citizens, everyone will live as a “Comrade”. In the Marxist system the wealth of the country will be equally shared. John Dewey, professor at Columbia University, signer of the Humanist Manifesto, designer of the Russian, Marxist school system said, “The end Justifies the means”. I met Guss Hall, president of the American Communist party who died in 2000 at the age of 90, and he said, “Whatever it takes to bring everyone to the same level”. I have described before how the Communists already had their system for burning down America overnight (cigarette lighters, bed spreads, draperies...the wind just right, tires on firetrucks shot out by snipers).

With better Generals, I don't believe the South would have lost the Civil War. The Southern boys were much better marksmen. It is always better to wait than to work...patience is a virtue. If the South had just waited and let the Yankees, so prissy, so sissy, come on down into the brier patches, concerned about messing up their uniforms, they could have been picked off one by one from behind the pine trees and outhouses by these Southern sharp shooters. If you were a Southerner, knowing you would be defeated, what would you have done with your Confederate money? Mr. Lincoln and his henchmen would not have given you anything for it. They had abandoned Habeas Corpus and most laws affecting Civil rights...were busy hanging Southerners. We know of Baptist preachers who were hanged. Much land along the Eastern Coast down and into the South had been given to the Episcopal Church by the Church of England...land which they still hold onto. Racial discrimination was nothing new. The blacks loved it enough that they never supported the abolitionists or Republicans such as Lincoln but rather, like the cotton mill workers, then and now, go to the polls, like puppets, to vote Democrat (Obama received 99% of the black vote). It was an all white, male legislature in North Carolina (not one woman, one black, one Republican) that passed the statutes, that printed the signs, that went in front of the buses, (I have one of the signs here in my house) forcing the black citizens of the state to sit in the rear of the bus, forcing the black citizens of the state to drink at separate water fountains, use separate bathroom facilities, use separate public schools, and the biggest insult of all...go to the rear of a restaurant to get food from the back door. In other commentaries, I have described in detail other memories of such bigotry such as my relationship with the first black student, a citizen of this state, finally admitted to the tax supported Chapel Hill campus. Now, president Bowles...from his political appointment following federal and state Democrat party decadence now wants, along with the other Democrat party leaders, illegal Mexicans and others admitted to all state supported colleges.

Anyone with sense enough to get out of bed in the morning, certainly young people with knowledge of nano technology, should know by now not to depend on the darkness of this world. We know that light has come into the world and men prefer darkness (John 3:19-20). Learn early, not too late, to store your treasure where your heart should be (Matthews 6:20). The essence of living is the essence of giving...first your heart then your treasure to your creator...celestial depository...where the creatures of earth cannot get at it.

Fear Index

When I was a college student at a very liberal university, the only rabid communist I knew there (I'm sure there were many more) was Dr. John Myers...who was forever promoting and praising the Columbia University professor John Dewey...self avowed communist, most famous for the phrase, "The end justifies the means". Dewey had visited and advised Russia concerning its public education. Many American educators believed then, as they do now, that public education should be completely divorced from the religious ideas of the founding fathers...complete humanists, secularization of education.

The world trying to normalize bad behavior is nothing new...it just worsens with each generation. "Don't ask, don't tell", same sex marriage, gay pastors and gay bishops, trivializing of Christian absolutes...the academic teaching of the myth of evolution as a fact...such disputed theories as global warming, international taxation, one world government, eugenics, would have caused an index of fear among the thinking protectors of this Republic and certainly some publicity in the journalistic community. With the slow but sure control of the mind through political correctness and the total take over of all investigative journalism in the state-controlled news media, we are suspect of every government entanglement.

Our lives and futures are punctuated by several indices including Consumer Price Index and Cost of Living Index. The one controlling our thinking, more than any other, is the "fear index". There seems to be a real effort in the control of the state-controlled media to put a hedge of ambiguity around the American people, to protect them from the realities confronting us. All indicators point to a second dip in the current "greatest" depression because this depression is greater than the "Great Depression" of 1929-1940. At least in the "Great Depression", before FDR collected and melted down all the gold in 1933 and Nixon closed the gold window in 1971 selling the countries gold for $42 an ounce and, Lyndon Johnson removed most of the silver from the "so-called" silver coins, and we were left with worthless fiat currency...something backed up our money. The specific gravity of gold and tungsten are about the same. We are supposed to have 251 million ounces of gold in our reserves "supposedly" at Fort Knox. Supposedly hundreds of thousands of the gold bars have been counterfeited with tungsten. It is further reported that the IMF, China and India have made the discovery. I listen intently to see if the crooks, Geithner or Bernanke, would face inquiry on this at their recent hearings before the oversight committees. Let's face it, the entire Congress is globalist...all involved in the "New World Order".

The Marxist President, Obama, as usual, is talking out of both sides of his mouth...fears imitating, fears of debt, while initiating more spending. It can get very close to home, family and neighbors who do not have jobs...under present financial conditions...no possibility of jobs. China manufacturing, and Wal-Mart selling all their production, have you attempted recently to buy anything made in this county?

I was on a plane load of the first Americans to visit China after the Nixon reopening. I saw the enslaved labor, their manufacturing everything possible, the totalitarian control of their lives...children in their schools of indoctrination and discipline...young people being prepared for work in the factories or military...old people being used for whatever with only the crematory at the end of their road in every commune. I came back and talked about the hospitals...which would have made Alfred Hitchcock cringe...prisoners strapped to tables as their vital organs were transplanted to sick people. A guide, who wanted to spill his "guts" about the horrors of communism...he had studied American free enterprise...told me that the sewers were clogged with dead female babies because in the forced abortion system in China and the one child policy. Most couples, with the insistence of the government who wants the largest standing army in the world, give life to a male child.

Of course now, we are seeing horrendous results of that policy. The population of China is the same as the United States plus one billion (1,300,000,000). Supposedly, China has 125,000 crack troops at the Panama Canal, which they took over. The Chinese soldiers, and the Chinese population, mostly male, those who are not gay, want a wife and as was the case with Australia being settled by male convicts from England, women from India and other Asian countries are becoming wives of the Chinese. It is a fearful situation and, like their 10% growth in GDP, most of the construction in the world going on there (70% of all the worlds construction cranes are now in China), the world's largest automobile manufacturers, the world's greatest attempts at space exploration, the almost complete takeover of the continent of Africa for its mineral and oil resources, the building of large tankers, aircraft carriers, submarines, in an effort to monopolize world commerce, we have fearful problems.

China controls America's future as far as debt is concerned. I can tell you without fear of contradiction that the great airports of the world, the great multi-laned highways of the world, the great industrial plants of the world, are all in China. It is no longer a matter of what we will do with Quemoy and Matsu (the two small islands between China and Taiwan), China is now the super power and China will do what it pleases. When you are at the mercy of a country, a bully, a wild animal, with any intelligence at all, you have fear.

Neither the Republicans or Democrats have any answers, just a bunch of clowns antagonizing one another. I supported both John Anderson and Ross Perot when they ran for President as third party candidates. This was a waste of my time and money. Like eating junk food (and junk food I include that sold in most grocery stores), you are a product of your own behavior. If you want a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a palm reader, some one to predict your future, those of you with eyes, look in the mirror. Jack LaLanne is now 96 years of age. On his own, he learned to eat wisely, to exercise wisely, and as an old man, is in good health and good mind. Your dollars have lost 10% of their value in the past 90 days. You should fear not only your financial future, your spiritual future but your health. The foods our grandparents ate one hundred years ago, are the same foods we should be eating today. Keep these chemically processed, genetically engineered, unclean foods out of your body. Measure very carefully your every action and as a good carpenter, measure twice so you will only cut once. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (2Timothy 1:7).

Selah

In the Old Testament, particularly in the Psalms, we often find the word “Selah”. A difficult word to translate, it is believed to mean “think of it”. I think many times, the Jews, completely enthralled and thrilled by the law...its prophecy, its promises...just wanted to magnify the exuberance. The Jews, the only civilization in the world to be given God's law by which to live, unlike the Christians who were given the “Holy Spirit” of God by which to live.

Truth does not conform to our comfort zone. It was not Potiphar or Potiphar's wife, but rather the truth and the morality of Joseph, that made the difference. I believe that when this 17 year old boy was sold into slavery by his own brothers, the very iron shackles which held him by his slave masters until he was sold in Egypt, immunized him with character and God endowed morality which made him, in every way, a hero in the history of the world. God had his hand on Joseph in preparing him and preserving him. In the 400 year enslavement of his people we often forget that it is the Jewish Nation we study in the Bible. We, gentiles, are only important in our relationship to the Jewish people. Surely, anyone with two brain cells still functioning, knows that all you have to do is use the three letters J-E-W to prove everything anyone needs to know about God, God's existence, the history and prophecy of the Universe. Mr. Obama, with all his Islamic education, his Muslim friends, his radical Alinsky, Muslim and Marxist ideology cannot, and will not, change anything pertaining to Israel or Judaism. The Bushes, Prescott, senator and cohort of Hitler, 41 and 43, pedigreed RINOs of deceit, disclaimed Catholics, Kennedys, Pelosi, Biden, Rangel, Geithner, etc., will know there is a “payday” someday.

At best, life is very short here on this Earth. These pretenders are convinced that driving a $100,000 car to a $10 million home, hobnobbing with the power brokers at cocktail parties, using gold playing cards on Air Force One, is more important than even the concept of “Streets of Gold”, knowing that lying, cheating and stealing, behind the curtain, is more satisfaction than integrity. President Kennedy went to the White House with, I believe, purity of purpose but, when he looked behind the curtain and saw the garbage, attempted to change things, and we know what happened to him, a bullet in the head. Orchestrated, Lyndon Johnson, took over things for the puppeteers of the world, and even if it meant lying to the public about the Gulf of Tonkin, the wars only grew. Eisenhower had warned, honest, had seen war, knew the decadence of the military-industrial complex...the very structure that then, as now, fills so many greedy pockets. Forget Christ, who came to give peace. From his birth to his death, Christ proclaimed peace. We have a war on poverty , a war on drugs, a war on terror. Have we won any of them? Poverty, illegal drugs, terror, all worsen with each day.

There is no such thing as a secure database. The DMV, in every state, is the chief offender. The government knows more about your business than you do...every bank transaction...every securities transaction...every real estate transaction...and the banks, the government, the IRS (now asking many questions which you should not answer, particularly on the census), just ready to relieve you of your property, a war on Americans.

We have sown to the wind and we have reaped a whirlwind (Hosea 8:7). Disclosures of your most private information, credit cards, insurance policies, military service, loan applications, it did not take an airport scanner to strip us naked.

Twice in my life I was on Gorée Island, where African slaves were auctioned before being sent into the Western hemisphere, I saw the small, dungeon cubicles. In Venice, Italy, I have walked across the “Bridge of Sighs” (Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice) where the prisoners glimpse their last view of beautiful Venice before execution. The Roman Empire possessed greatness beyond words to describe, all the way to England and Scandinavia, before absolute paganism took over. Emperor Nero, 64 A.D., to give his garden light at night, burned Christians hanging on poles. Are we heading in the same direction, a new war on Christianity?

Identity theft is the fastest growing crime...people wanting other's things rather than making preparations for themselves. One day on my front porch, a friend called my attention to an ant who was carrying a seed three times larger than the ant. After telling me about this, he just went over and stepped on the ant. I quoted a verse of scripture to him, which is like many of you who do not appreciate scripture, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:” (Proverbs 6:6). Ants are always busy, always working, always preparing for the future. They have a quiet, consistent form of government. “Think of it,” the ant is the smallest insect, look in the microscope, the smallest microbiology, many just one cell bacteria, think of clostridium botulinuma one cell organism that can cause catastrophe or even death. Cancer begins with just one diabolical cell. "Think of it", how many people do you know with cancer?

Of greatest value to a politician is name recognition, them, like other celebrities, they do not want to be recognized. Like Greta Garbo, I just want to be left alone.

Money is no longer a matter of exchange. It is a matter of popularity (Howard Stern gets $500 million), it is a matter of political corruption (Senator Landrieu got $300 million), it is a matter of political patronage (retired Senator Cohen from Maine who recieved $200,000 for a 30 minute speech at UNCW while, to my certain knowledge, students there, are flat on their face trying to pay the exhorbitant charges). We asked the question, why do politicians spend millions to get elected to offices which pay just a fraction of what it costs them to get there. Henry Kissenger, Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Colin Powell, etc., men who clubbed their way to the top are paid millions of dollars each year just for sitting on a board of trustees or for making a speech. "Think of it", a veterans hospital, a nursing home, a military or public cemetery, veterans, parents, people of no notoriety who gave so much.

Don't confuse accomplishment with celebrity...don't confuse money with payment, gratitude, generosity. Almost every day of my life someone calls and certainly I get a letter, wanting money...political party, pro-life, Church or Christian college. Yesterday, I took the time to lecture a pro-life caller. I was taking a nap when the phone rang. I said to her, "You are going about this the wrong way. All of you think that money will solve your problems. You will never speak to a more pro-life person than me, but instead of always asking me for money, write me a letter telling me about your efforts and if I am led to send you money by the Holy Spirit of God, I will do so. You have someone on your side more powerful than money."

When will the politicians, the do-gooder organizations, forget these campaign planners who direct their efforts. Money is not the solution to America's problems. Surely we have learned this in "throwing money" at wars, buying corrupt officials, buying corrupt foreign governments ($10 million goes to Israel and $10 million goes to Egypt each day). When will we learn that money has not improved education, not improved health care, not eliminated poverty, not improve anything which happens at the Church house, the Courthouse, the State House, or the White House.

Every intelligence expert in the world will tell you that Mr. Obama bought a cheap forgery birth certificate, a cheap forgery selective service certificate. He and his wife paid plenty for cheap, forgery social security numbers. Like cheap hookers who charge much, many learned the expense of cheapness.

People's Money

In 1968, I saw the Broadway play, Promises, Promises. In a scene in this play, an old man is in a rickety old bed; sheets made of flower sacks, an old patchwork quilt, a young dapper insurance representative of the government stands nearby with a briefcase and the sick old man, in bed, states, “Promises, promises. All I ever get is promises.”

In my lifetime, I have seen “people's money” become the public's money. If you own a farm, home, vehicle, anything which is taxable, and you do not pay your taxes, you will learn just how quickly your hard work, your frugality, your risk-taking, becomes the government's property and the government's money. Really, when you get right down to the difference, (and I have been in every communist, collectivist, totalitarian country) the only difference in a communist system and this Democratic Republic form of government is that in Communism the government owns and controls everything. In this country, the government PRETENDS you own your home, farm, etc. They let you take care of everything at your expense but really, you own nothing. For instance, (I have been in Communist China three times) all citizens are housed in public housing, four families share one bathroom and one kitchen but the government provides your electricity, water, food, employment, health care. The government provides everything you need and you, with the pittance from your job, usually a few dollars a week, can buy what you want. I went to large stores in China and Russia; there was no color, nothing enticing, just necessities with the same ambiance of a cave. This is one commercial system where you never heard anyone wish you a good day, because the day is the same for everyone.

As was the case in the Old South with the cotton mill stores and the tenant farmers who were lucky to arrive in town once or twice a year, there was no need for competition or attractiveness. The entire mantra of the Communist system, as was the case with we poor southerners, was survival.

A situation that tainted my life forever, as a young poor college student, working my way through school, selling Bibles door-to-door through the summer, each time I went inside the city limits of a town where the cotton mill was the main employer {and this was the case with most southern towns, particularly in eastern NC (Bladenboro, Goldsboro, Smithfield, etc.)} I was told by the law officer, representing the cotton mills, in Bladenboro, NC, that if any of the people in that town needed a book, “they would buy it at the company store.”

So you see, we have been in and out of the Communist system for a very long time and with Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, vehicle inspections, when socialized health care takes over and a crematorium is built with which to dispose of the dead (as in every commune in China and Russia) we will be there. These small green checks which you get from the government each month, just enough to keep you alive along with government food stamps, and other government programs, will be close to the totalitarianism dreamed by Roger Baldwin, Henry Wallace and Gus Hall.

I remember so very well, attending a meeting at Duke University in the '60s, just when hospitalization insurance (Blue Cross, etc.) was a very new thing with state employees and some corporations. A doctor from New York University was introducing the system of Medicare. Of course, all the doctors in the room, having experienced the trauma of collecting delinquent accounts, were thrilled with the possibility of cramming government checks into their pockets in payment for the care of sick people. I remember, very well at the time, I got $2 to examine a welfare patient. I was the only one in the room, brave enough to raise my hand and ask the question, “What will happen when the government reduces your charge for services? Surely you recognize that if the government is going to pay, everyone who has a day off will be in a doctor's office, needed or not.” The doctor did not give me an answer but those still in practice, now, know the answer.

Some of the people who have worked for me, driven my car for me, over the years, think I ask many questions simply because I'm blind. But every time I go to a doctor's office, I ask how many people are there, and about their ages. Without exception, they are always old people simply because most have nothing else to do and the government is going to pay for their visit. (Medicare or Medicaid) Can you even imagine what it will be like when the socialized system takes over? Go to a VA hospital and see the quality and quantity of care.

In traveling the world, there is so much natural beauty everywhere: mountains, foliage, streams, flowers. It is only in the totalitarian countries; the communist countries such as Russia, China, etc., the Muslim countries such as Iran, Pakistan, Tunisia, etc. that you find so much ugliness, colorlessness, undecorated, un-kept homes and public facilities. I'm sure it was not always that way because I owned art which came from the imaginations of it's creators. I spent a tremendous amount of money in China buying pre-revolution art while it was still available. The magnificent silk embroideries (unsurpassed handiwork in colors) was all sold immediately. The magnificent silk blend Persian carpets (beautiful colors and patterns) were superlative and sold immediately. No one can prove to me that the human mind is not capable of beauty even when the ugliness of the strangulation of imagination has taken over.

In one Chinese factory, where slave labor youngsters were turning out vases for the export market, I said to the guide, “Suppose one imaginative, talented youngster would produce a vase of unusual beauty such as was produced in past historic dynasties.” She said, “We would destroy it. Everything is manufactured according to a certain pattern. They do everything the prescribed way. There is no place for individuality in our system.” Now, you know what has happened to YOUR school system. Now, you know what has happened to your money once it becomes government money. The taxes you pay, your hard work, your total obedience has resulted in your enslavement. Don't think for one minute, that your government and the people who are in charge of your government, the people who are in charge of your children, love you.

On your knees, in total obedience, you have found the change. Deception is the greatest tool Satan has in his arsenal and your government has become your idol of deception. There was a time when a person did not want to be deceived by people, places or things. There was a time when we resented counterfeit. Recently I had a woman say to me, “I don't care anything about the Bible. I don't care anything about the Constitution. I don't believe in anything anymore. I just don't care.”

“One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Think and Grow Rich

One of the best-selling books of all time, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, an American author who was one of the earliest authors of the modern genre of “personal-success” literature. Hill's works examined the power of personal beliefs, and the role they play in personal success. "What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve" is one of Hill's hallmark expressions. The turning point in the writing career of Napoleon Hill is considered to have occurred in 1908 with his assignment, as part of a series of articles about famous men, to interview billionaire industrialist Andrew Carnegie, who at the time was one of the most powerful men in the world. Hill discovered that Carnegie believed that the process of success could be elaborated in a simple formula that could be duplicated by the average person. Impressed with Hill, Carnegie commissioned him (without pay and only offering to provide him with letters of reference) to interview over 500 successful men and women, many of them millionaires, in order to discover and publish this formula for success. As a result of Napoleon's studies via Carnegie's introductions, the Philosophy of Achievement was offered as a formula for rags-to-riches success by Hill and Carnegie, published initially in 1928 as a study course called, The Law of Success. The Achievement formula was detailed further and published in home-study courses, including the seventeen-volume "Mental Dynamite" series in 1941.

For the disabled, of interest is the fact that Hill had a disabled son; Hill's second son, Blair, was born without any visible sign of ears. Hill was determined that his son would not view himself as handicapped. Early on, Hill and his wife worked with Blair to encourage him to "adapt" himself to the "benefit" that he acquired at birth. Mr. and Mrs. Hill never spoke of Blair's condition as a handicapping one. To the Hills' credit, Blair went on to graduate from college and became a successful merchant and civic leader. He began using a hearing aid only during his last year in college and this device was said to enable him to have near normal hearing. As a blind person, one of the most thrilling aspects of his book was the fact that early in his son's life, Hill determined he could communicate with his son by vibrations. I determined, that if a deaf person could learn through vibrations, a blind person could learn by hearing. This book had such an influence on my life, that I offered to pay many young men $10 to read it. Other than buying the books, I never paid one $10 because not one of these lazy people ever came back and told me they had read the book. Such is the lackadaisical don't care attitude of most young people in modern America.


Henrietta "Hetty" Howland Robinson Green (November 21, 1834 – July 3, 1916) worked as a cleaning woman on Wall Street. She heard stock brokers talk about various stocks and she became a specialist in listening and buying stocks with her meager income. By living frugally, and investing wisely, at a time in history when it was very difficult to amass a fortune, she became one of the country's wealthiest women. There are many tales about her stinginess, but it all comes to this, as can be testified to by your writer, you can not invest what you have spent. At the time of her death, her estimated net worth was around $100 – $200 million (or $1.9 – $3.8 billion in 2006 dollars).

Financial security is a mindset. I do not know anyone of wealth with whom it is not a matter of thinking. There are wealthy people who do not have the mindset, they got it the easy way, they inherited it. Those who inherit great wealth usually do not hold on to it. Most people who become wealthy, do it the hard way, they work for it and it is hard work! But, most of all, it is a mindset.

I want to disclose to you a matter which I have written and lectured about many times. The way a person can become wealthy; first of all, you are an American, at least until recently, a land of opportunity, where you can do anything you wish to do and there is no limit to how much you can make, if you are willing to work for it. If you do not have the mindset for work and saving, you are wasting your time. You can make a good living with your hands, and many people do, but if you are going to make money it is a constant mindset of self-control, conservativeness, and hard work; peppered with much aggravation from a large part of the population that 'don't care' and pick pocket service people predominately, who just want to rip you off at least one time. Most of all, it takes a Christian faith in an all-mighty God, who is in partnership with you, because God knows you are proving (Malachi 3) that you are working for Him as well as yourself.

1.Mindset- you must accept the fact that no matter how poor your background, you are not stuck where you start. Perhaps, because my parents, grandparents were conservative, frugal in their lifestyle, hard-working, patriots giving a large percentage of their income to God's work, I was frugal as a child. In college, I had the nickname of “Iron Pockets” because I went through 8 years of university education, which I paid, myself, living on $1 a day. I still, to this day, a multi-millionaire, do not spend much more than that on myself. I am a firm believer that one should deny self. (Mark 8:34-35 ) There is nothing that makes me sicker than a fat preacher, nothing more disgusting than a supposed “servant of God” (TV preachers, etc) with their expensive haircuts, expensive suits, flashing jewelry, and lifestyles of the 'rich and famous'. My only child, my son, a foreign missionary, told me about having lunch with an employee of the Bennie Hinn ministries, at which time he was told of the extravagance of that group. If a church or ministry, expects to get one dime from me, I don't expect them to live any better than I do. I give away a large part of my income, but I will assure you, that if I learn of waste and exorbitance or extravagance or lack of discipline, which I exercise in my own life and living, they need not expect anything else from me. I do not have this ability for restriction with the government, but it should sicken any tax-paying citizen to hear of corruption and extravagance in government. The problem is, only about 50% kf citizens pay taxes. So, the 50% who do not pay taxes elect to office those politicians who have no discipline in their lives and they enjoy spending YOUR money. In fact, I have learned, that most conservative politicians know nothing of TRUE conservation. George W. Bush, who claimed to be a compassionate conservative, born into one of the wealthiest families in the country, in my opinion, was neither conservative or Christian.
2.Day-Sheet- If you go to my bedroom right now, as in every day of my life, you will find a loose leaf notebook where, on every day of the year, I list my expenditures for that day. At the end of the year, I can use these expenditures for tax purposes by keeping them in this manner. But, the important thing, is to list your expenses each day. There is no other way, on Earth, whereby you can discipline yourself about spending. The only money you have to invest, is what you have not spent. Some people have nothing to invest because they have spent it all! It takes money to make money, and only what you have invested makes money; whether real estate, securities, antiques, collectibles, etc. You only make money on things you can sell for a profit. Be careful with expendables. Name brands sell for more because of their advertising. Credit cards are a poison, stay away from them.
3.Tithing- The last book in the Old Testament is the Book of Malachi. Malachi means 'messenger' and the message is that we should give; that we 'rob God if we do not give' (Malachi 3:8-12) Many believe in giving the tenth, as did the children of Israel, but the Jewish people also gave other worship offerings such as 'first fruits'. The tithe is not specific in the New Covenant. It can be used as a starting point for giving because, if the Jewish people, gave a tithe under law, how much more we should give under grace! It is important to give as we have been prospered (1 Corinthians 16:2) and remember, God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7) YOU CAN NOT OUT GIVE GOD! Give and it shall be given to you (Luke 6:38)
4.Lifestyle- I become deathly ill when I hear of the extravagance involved in the living of some people. Opulence and extravagance are like mediocrity; mental abuse against yourself. I have traveled the world, passport stamped in 157 countries, because I believe God wanted me to see how people live all over the world. Most of the poverty of the world is below the 30th parallel, countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia etc. Once you have seen the poverty of these places, the decadence of spending and spreeing people, particularly Americans, the most blessed country on earth, makes me very ill. I never go to a restaurant where a meal costs over $10. I do not own a shirt that cost over 25 cents. I do not have one article of clothing not bought second hand in a thrift store. There is not one piece of furniture in my house not bought second hand. I do not blame anyone for not living as frugally as I do. But one can not have the Holy Spirit of God in his heart, have seen the needs and poverty of most of the citizens of this earth and spoil himself with extravagance. Honesty in dealing with God, and with your neighbors, is expected. More importantly, is honesty in dealing with yourself. Your conscience will not allow you to see needs in the world and still be extravagant with yourself. Only YOU can make that decision. I firmly believe in making every dollar possible, honestly, morally, lawfully. I firmly believe in paying your taxes, because in spite of the deception and corruption of government, we must have government; with the streets, law enforcement, and other things government is responsible for. I firmly believe in paying people to do things for me that I can not do for myself. I believe God holds us responsible for our citizenship as well as for our Christian discipleship.
5.Investing- Your best investment is in yourself. Have the mental ability to do the best you can with what you have. There is nothing as wasted as a wasted mind. Every child is due an education at the expense of the public. When I graduated from high school, there were no grants, no programs, no counselors, very few scholarships; only those elitist families with political pull got a chance at a military academy, only those elitist families with political pull, or alumni connections, got a chance at a scholarship. Children from the poor classes, if fortunate enough to enter college, had a working experience. In my case, for 8 years, and more so through the summer months, I worked at night and went to school during the day. When I graduated at 2 universities, I had paid my way and owed nothing. Today, most students, even those with grants and scholarships, have large student loans; particularly professionals such as doctors and dentists. Denial and self-discipline are good learning tools for future success. Character determines destination. The best character builder is hunger. It still sickens me to see college students spending and spreeing; I can well remember the convertibles, the cashmere sweaters, the fraternity pins, the partying that went on night and day at UNC-Chapel Hill. It was these popular, elitist, students who were in student government (because they could pay for the advertising and did not have to work) who were members of the elitist clubs and fraternities, who were the “pets” of the faculty and the administration. One of my friends was the son of a judge, both parents were alumni of the university, and he got special attention. Another friend, was the son of a state legislator, the university had a special administration official to make sure he had no problems. I could recite other such inequities, but just think of the inequity, at that time, of a bright young student not being able to attend his state university simply because his skin color was black. Investing with friendship, particularly in high school and college years, is very important. Mark Twain said, “Friendships should be kept in repair.” Continue to stay in contact with your friends. The bond of friendship made with people in youth, like the bond between parents and children, is a great investment and many of us discover that too late. Another investment, which will pay marvelous dividends, is the investment in good health. Many spend their health obtaining wealth and then it becomes necessary to spend their wealth trying to regain their health. From college until this very day, I have saved 50 cents out of every dollar I have made for investment. I could save more for investing, if I did not pay so much in tax and if I did not give away as much as I do for God's work. Of this 50 cents, I invest 25 cents in real estate and 25 cents in securities. At present, I have about the same amount in securities as in real estate, but with the present economic climate, everything is worth less.

The Christian, I'm not talking about a pretender, the born again believer in Jesus Christ, baptized, serving, knows that Christ came that we might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10) We will have troubles and tribulations, like everyone else. Satan will work us over. We will have automobile problems, A/C problems, health problems, even family problems, like everyone else. Don't cheat yourself. God has given us one instruction, to trust him. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6) For 40 years I have thought, as a totally disabled person, that God would 'cut me some slack' but I seem to have more problems than anyone else and for a blind person, everything is a problem.

“Through it all,
through it all,
I've learned to trust in Jesus,
I've learned to trust in God.

Through it all,
through it all,
I've learned to depend upon His Word.”

-Chorus of Through it All, Andre Crouch