Fool's Gold

Jeremiah 32: 17-18

17 Ah Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:

18 Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the Lord of hosts, is his name.

The Earth does not wobble at the death of one man. The earth does not go off its axis at the death of one million men. Although men, their personalities are the best God has to offer. Like Fool's Gold, fakery, God must be greatly embarrassed by many of us (The mineral pyrite, or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula FeS2. This mineral's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue give it a superficial resemblance to gold, hence the well-known nickname of fool's gold. A real pretender but has no real value.)

For many years, this writer owned a very fine condo apartment on Manhattan's East Side. I was never a New Yorker, never felt like a New Yorker, always lived and maintained my homes in the south, but since I could afford this extravagance, and since it was an excellent launching pad for my world travels, at an energetic-enigmatic time in my life when I was truly concerned with personal-egotistical advancement, this pied-a-terre served me well. I lived on Beakman Place by the United Nations... on the corner, just across the street from the South Korean embassy, just across the street from famed composer Irving Berlin. I enjoyed "hobknobbing" with the elitists in this area of the city, although I was not one of them (I, too, can act-pretend, I felt I was stranded on an island of sanity in a sea of heathenism, these diplomats had a right to their lifestyles. I was flirting with Fool's Gold).

Among my several philanthropic causes, the New York-based Volunteer Services for Children (an organization that provides shelters for homeless children). I was attending a meeting of the national group at the Hilton hotel on Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Ave.), though completely blind, I had no difficulty getting to the building, up the escalator, into the correct assemblage. But, during the meeting, going to the Men's room, I became disoriented and wound up in another meeting. Of course, I dress well, can fit into any group. The meeting into which I ventured was a group of communist union workers. They were having coffee and donuts and one man invited me to join them, actually brought me a cup of coffee and a donut. Several talked with me and since I had on my veteran's DAV cap, with my rank, insignia and medical caduceus, attracted much attention. I guess they thought I was one of them. Later, men on either side, invited me to join another scheduled meeting in another part of town. One said, "Gus will be there." Of course, he was talking about Gus Hall, chairman of the American Communist Party. Always seeking a new adventure, I got right in the taxi cab with them. The meeting was held on the West Side of Manhattan in a large warehouse-type building. Unaware why they had invited me, probably thinking I was a very disgruntled American. During the meeting, they discussed burning down my country, that with the winds just right in the city it was a matter of cigarette lighters lighting curtains or bedspreads from an open window. They pointed out that snipers would shoot out the tires of all firetrucks. "That in a matter of minutes, most cities would have fires, particularly in old, historic wooden buildings, that would burn an entire city to the ground." This is what the communist had in store for us... even fifty years ago. Can we even imagine what enemies have in store for my country with today's radical groups, armed biologicals, nuclear suitcase bombs? It should be evident to anyone with an IQ above their shoe size that the enemy is invading... across the borders, through every airport terminal. IF, with missiles on top of the White House, sharpshooters and guards around the White House, one man can climb the fence, run across those large plush grounds, get inside our nations home of the president through an unlocked front door, traverse most of the mansion, perhaps the NSA, IRS, CIA, FBI insteal of lowly Americans should spend more time on that type of security. In a time of drugged bureaucrats and political low-lifes (very low men and women in very high places), can there be hope for the survival of hard-working, tax-paying, God-fearing citizens. In recent warfare, since WW1, 90% of all casualties were civilians. The bureaucrats have underground tunnels, most of our men in uniform have weapons but for the rest of us, good luck.

God does not blame anyone for jumping out of a burning building but we all have a hunger for life. We need to get this matter of guilt and shame corrected in our thinking. Babies murdered in the abortion process, kicking and squirming before birth, are anxious for life. Perhaps the female, married or unmarried, who is the only one blessed by God to give birth is ashamed to be an unwed mother, but most victims of abortion would tell you that this is nothing compared to the guilt involved in taking that life. Do we actually think that a holy God of justice will allow a nation so blessed, as has been America, to kill 53 million babies just since the infamous supreme court decision of 1973. To allow a greedy military industrial complex to manufacture weapons that have destroyed so many lives in so many countries, that has provided the God-given chemicals and knowledge to conjure the illegal designer drugs which have left so many lives in shambles. Technology which has brought the worst man can offer into every home (pornography, desensitization to violence) and then think that we will escape, even the Christian's have a responsibility for not allowing the Christian message to be polluted by the Madison Ave. culture and designs of the world.

Technology has made life much better for all of us, but human nature has not changed. We are so busy chasing after fool's gold, the fakery of this world. Perhaps the two matters that bother me most, in regards to dealing with my fellow man. I cannot stand the public spanking of a small child. Give any child, particularly your child, the personal privacy even from a very early age of private discipline. The other traumatic matter at the other end of life, most of the time, the public display of a dead body (remember I did not say a person, I said a body). If a Christian, the person in a far better place, would not return. For the unsaved, death is truly death, emotional scar tissue. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. This is real gold.

Time Marches On

Yesterday, Queen Elizabeth II spoke to the representatives of the 192 United Nations. This is the second time she had appeared at the world assembly, the first time as the new monarch of the British Empire in 1957. Now, an old woman at 84 with an old husband at 89, she still demonstrates the class and dignity which once was a factor of western civilization. Of course, I have been through Buckingham Palace in London, Windsor Palace outside of London and even the palace at Edinburgh in Scotland.

I spent one night in treetops in Africa (a hotel built up in the trees, with water holes and feeding places, where you can watch the wild animals come up in their natural habitat). The young bride and her new husband, prince Philip were at treetops when she was informed of the death of her father and that she was the new reigning monarch of the British Empire. Many of us remember her wedding at Westminster Abbey, as well as the crowning ceremony. She gives stability to every country of the United Kingdom. It is estimated that the queen is worth many billions and is known as the world's richest woman, even richer than Oprah. But, like the rest of us, the time will come when in spite of all her money, she cannot buy one more second of life. I have been in the chapel of Saint George at Windsor where her ancestors are buried. She knows that she too, will one day die and be buried there.

One day, I heard two very old women talking at my church, both were in their 90s. One said to the other, “it won't be long now.” The other said, “I can hardly wait.” The thing that most people fear most, transition, they look forward to, because they were prepared for death.

You may be right about some things, you may be wrong about some things, but one thing on which you should be right is the matter of death and the matter of God. 85% of Americans say they believe in God, just as 80% of Americans have contempt for government, if 80% of Americans have contempt for government, they would vote differently and our country would change. If 85% of Americans believe in God, their lives would be a living testimony to their faith, and we would have a different country. Most are just playing church, as one black woman said to me, “I hold on, just in case there is something to it.” She, like the rest of us, needs the security that she could have. There has never been an atheist who went through a near death experience (NDE), who was not instantly converted, who did not live the rest of their life as a Christian, who put aside material things. They had been allowed to have a peak at the other side.

The latest statistics about people who have had a near death experience is from 1982. At that time, about 13 million had experienced such, books have been written on such. A physician, Dr. Jeffrey Long, cancer specialist, has written a book, Evidence of the Afterlife, he interviewed people in 20 languages. He found about the same answers from everyone, everywhere. The near death transition experience was always peaceful and loving, everyone expressed a tunnel-like exit, with loving people, perfect in every way, no longer debilitated by pathology, lovingly greeting them on the other side.

As a totally blind person for most of my life, I can understand this supernatural, magical gift from God. I have not seen anything for a very long time, but I never meet anyone, anywhere that God does not impress upon my psyche, their appearance. It is rather general, but I certainly have a general idea that you normal people see...and you take so lightly and for granted. I would like to see my two grandsons, my son, but from just being around them there has been a transmission that takes place with my other senses, so that I know what they would look like if I could see them...even their photographs. I cannot see food, but from the taste, I can have a definite mental image.

Do not make the mistake of short changing God, many who “think” they believe in his blessing, who think they believe in eternity, who ”think” they are prepared to die, would work night and day, piling up every dollar possible to buy this assurance, which is a free gift.

In the great flu epidemic of 1918, there were many deaths in the community in which my parents lived, among the many deaths in my mothers home, and my mother was a child of 7 years, was her young brother Ned, a 3 year old. My mother, and her mother, would talk about the beauty of Ned until my grandmothers death at 80, every beautiful young boy, she would see, her entire life, she would remark, “he looks just like Ned.” They talked of the handmade wood box, put in the back of a buggy and take him to the cemetery a short distance from the house. I never knew my grandfather, my mother's father, except as an old man, but my mother and my grandmother told how he took the wood box out of the buggy and carried it to the grave. MY uncle asked him if he could help him, he said, “no, an army of a thousand could not help me today.”

Faith is needed in a time of sorrow as well as times of joy, you have sorrow in loss, but joy in gain. Both happen at the time of transition of death, is it not remarkable, let the evolutionists try to explain this, the same eyes, the lachrymal glands, have a different chemistry involved in tears of sorrow and tears of joy.