Basic Facts

#1768

The master deception of Satan! 

(Arthur Pink, "The Doctrine of Sanctification" 1937)

"I am the LORD your God. You must consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy." Leviticus 11:44 

We do greatly deceive ourselves, if we imagine that we are drawing nearer to Heaven--while only following those courses which lead to Hell. 

We are woefully deluded, if we suppose that we are journeying towards glory--and yet are living in sin. 

Christ died to procure holiness--not to secure an indulgence for sin. 

To live in known and allowed sin, and yet expect to be saved by Christ--is the master deception of Satan! 

My reader, a faith which does not transform character and reform conduct, is worthless. 

Saving faith is only proved to be genuine by bearing the blossoms of experimental godliness and the fruits of personal piety.

Great multitudes of ignorant people who live under the Gospel, harden their hearts in sin and ruin their souls forever, by trusting on Christ for such an 'imaginary salvation' as consists not at all in holiness--but only in forgiveness of sin and deliverance from everlasting torments. They would be free from the punishments due to sin--but they love their lusts so well that they hate holiness and do not desire to be saved from the service of sin. If they do not desire to be made holy and righteous in their hearts and lives--then they do not heartily desire true salvation.

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          The shepherd smells like his sheep. He carries them on his shoulder. Drinks from the same spring from which they drink. There is a companionship between shepherd and sheep, they trust one another.

          One of the unanswered questions of my life, WHY those who claim to love god, put their redemption in the shed blood of his son, envy often imitate, those who despise God. I have associates, family members, neighbors, who say they are Christian, "Christ-like," and yet, in language, dress, habits, personal interests... can not be distinguished from those who are basically unbelievers-atheists. When you are in their company, they talk about the world, flesh, devil. THEY DO NOT WANT TO BE DIFFERENT. Those of us who love Gods word, love the Gospel, love Gospel music, have an aching hunger to associate-talk-visit with those who have a small knowledge of the holiness of God. We know that God has forgiven our sins, past, present and future. That we are in daily warfare against our flaws, but even the child recognizes hypocrisy.

          I shutter, even panic, when I think of the many times that I have failed my blessed Lord. This I know, from everything I have read in his word, from everything I have experienced in life... He has mercy to spare and although I have failed him, He will never fail me.  

Nakedness

#1767

"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (Isaiah 5:20)

                                           

            The older I get the less I understand WHY, with only one life to live the way sane people will let their body go, knowing full well that what they put in their throat, their nutrition, determines their health... even their ability to fight disease. Incrementally, in my lifetime everything just gets worst. When I was a student, 70 years ago, cancer and diabetes were rare diseases. Today one half of the population have cancer and almost the same percentage have diabetes.

            This world traveler can tell you, without fear of contradiction, that there is only one nation in the world with so many obese-overweight people. Americans have a love affair with food, one in ten Americans say they spend 300$ a week on food.

            In one of my office buildings, one group of psychologists, fourteen rooms, a group specializing in eating disorders. When I was in practice, a patient talking to me about going on a diet, I would say, "There is only one effective diet. You must start eating each meal each day, for one week, with four other fat people. All of you eating your meal naked." There is nothing as ugly as a naked-flabby-fat individual. This is the reason clothing is so important, but I want to speak about nakedness.

            The earliest report of nakedness is found in scripture, when Moses and the three million children of Israel arrived at Mt. Sinai. Moses went up the mountain to converse with God, to receive the commandments. When he came down the mountain, those he had rescued from Egyptian bondage, were dancing around a gold calf naked.

            Nakedness has always been associated with sin, in every dark "strip joint," you will find nudity, even some beaches on haven islands. When this writer arrived on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, I put on my swimming trunks and went down to the hotel swimming pool. Everyone around the pool, except me, was naked. It is when you see nude ugly people, you'll appreciate clothing.

            I was sitting on the front porch of my beach house, on the ocean, with friends... one lady said to me, "Tom, I'm glad you cant see. There is a young girl in a bikini coming down the street and she seems to be eight months pregnant." Just the thought of such a sight, the thought of the disrespect to others at the beach, young children, her baby, I went into my house and vomited into my kitchen sink.

            And yet, our not thinking-concerned-committed church goers, even Christians, even in America... not showing the nakedness of themselves in their unconcern for what is happening to our nation... to the world.

            Think of the unequivocal evil, the burning alive of a Jordanian pilot in a cage, in Syria. Closer to home, think of the evil involved in planned parent hood, "chopped up" innocent babies... selling tissue and body parts.

            My seminary professors son told me that recently he was asked to speak at a large Texas church, located in a county seat. He said the church, which would seat hundreds, only had a small plump of about 20 people there just on one side of the building. Their church had died and these remaining old members did not seem to realize it, unconcerned that there was no young people in the church. Unconcerned about the great commission. In Shakespeare's "Hamlet"... "to thine own self be true." (Act 1) Generally speaking, everyday of my life, we lose ground. Only about ten percent of the population are interested in changing things: most of us hiding behind a shell of deceit, not even realizing the controls media, government, political correction, envy for popularity and acceptance, has on our life.

            We know about corruption, we just want to blame the wrong corrupter. "Ye that love the LORD, hate evil." (Psalm 97:10)

        

Enigma of Rationality

No man is an island

Entire of itself,

Every man is a piece of the continent, 

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less

As well as if a promontory were.

As well as if a manor of thy friends

Or of thine own were:

Any mans death diminishes me,

Because I am involved in mankind,

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

-John Donne

The world, particularly western civilization has fallen into a cauldron of irrationality

Our world is seized by the idol of appearance. Nothing rational about this enigma, it is always a matter of LOOKS. 

This writer is an eye doctor. I was always amazed, with the ophthalmoscope The clearness of the interior of a child's eye. The child must be about five years of age before the eyes start focusing correctly. The pairs of muscles attached to the child's ocular structure must learn to work correctly, if not you have what the average person sees as "cross eyed"(Most parents and teachers want the child to read to young. The child does not have the hand-eye coordination to handle this delicate process before the age of five. Most parents likewise, allow the child to sit to close to the television and we have an epidemic of myopia, nearsightedness. There space-world comes in and it takes an artificial concave lens to push it back out were it belongs).

Two of the worlds great politicians are eye doctors, Dr. Rend Paul, and Dr. Bashar al-Assad. president of Syria. Too many doctors forget they are scientists. Dr. Assad is condemned as a killer of Syrians but, he does not permit foods with GMO'S (genetically modified organisms) in the foods of his country. It is much like the rationality of Big-Pharma in America spending big bucks on "erectile dis-function" while three-thousand African children die from malaria everyday.  It is much like Obama speaking of the death of innocent  "Our counter terrorism efforts have prevented attacks and saved innocent lives both here in America and around the world and that determination to protect innocent lives only makes the loss of these two men especially painful." This writer is concerned about this pretender-presidents unconcern about the three-thousand innocent babies killed-aborted in this nation each and every day. The irrationality of abortion, the killing of any innocence both young

and old is a matter to which god will hold him, as well as this nation to account. 

I heard 19 trillion used the first time this morning. Our nation is 19 trillion dollars in debt... Money that can not, and will not ever be repaid. 

Each morning, when I am putting on my necktie, without fail, I hear the large mobilized street sweeper in the street in front of my house (This old soldier still wears a necktie everyday). The streets are swept everyday including Sunday, same time every morning... 7 am. So irrational, appearance of streets, little attention of what goes on off the streets. Same block, college student killed for the few dollars in his pocket. Have you noticed that every housing project, streets so clean, lawns and grass manicured around the housing project, WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE IMPRESSING? God, each other, he knows and we surely know the basis for our problems, here, Iraq, Baltimore or anywhere else. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). You can bath, perfume, put lipstick on a sow, but she is still a hog. 

Read all the books, study all the charts, listen to all the experts, but the bottom line, age, particularly old age, is the cause of every disease. If you go to your doctor sick, make sure you look sick. 

William Cowper hymn writer, (There is a fountain filled with blood) wrote in one hymn, "God moves in mysterious ways his wonders to perform." Cowper, minister, hymn writer, suicidal, on the brink of insanity most of his life. To those who knew him he probably appeared normal. Your congressman probably appears normal but, for the salary of 175-thousand he makes a year, he must spend two-million dollars to gain his congressional seat. The next president will spend two billion dollars to gain the presidents salary which pays an average of four-hundred-and-sixty-thousand. Most politicians- bureaucrats, seek office or get appointments in order to be near the government money. Much of it winds up in their pockets. Have you ever written down how many government services you get for the taxes you pay? You can write a list of these services on a very small piece of paper. It is all appearance, looks. We have these large government buildings, all these firetrucks, police cars, and we think we are getting something for our money. President Roosevelt conducted WWII with one secretary. Now, as of 2014 the executive branch has 2,079 employees. 

49% of Americans get a government check, of some type. It might be a check from welfare, student aid, housing, military or other retirement. It just looks good, if everyone looks good. When Jesus nourished the ground around the Sea of Galilee with his feet, the world was under Roman rule, Roman slavery. Yet, even Jesus, god in man, creator of the universe, said, "For ye have the poor always with you" (Matthew 26:11). 

Off the clean streets, the manicured lawns and public places, inside most communities life is like that in an internment camp. Most of us are just striving to survive. As on the College-University campus, their are those who have the financial largess to "hang out" at a fraternity house. In my city, many citizens can "hang out" at the country club or golf course. But most of us are just striving to survive. 

Recently, in my city, a long living- hard working- god fearing grand-mother died. In order to get her checks, (SS, housing, food stamps, etc.) her daughter just left her in her bed, dead. She would go in each day and spray her with a disinfectant- deodorizer. Grand-mother slowly dried up, but a grand-child "let the cat out the bag." A fireman told me that in the welfare ghettos of New York City, almost every closet contains a dead "old cadaver", covered in lime. What is the answer, the longest distance in the world, that fourteen inches from the human brain to the human heart, "Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life" (John 6:68)

#1726

Dipping from the Cistern

"Dipping from the Cistern"

Choice gems from William Gurnall

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The gospel is God's heart in print!

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That book must be worth reading--that has God for the author!

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Do not say that  you love Christ, so long as you can lay those sins in your bosom--which plucked His heart out of His bosom! It were strange if a child should keep, and delight to use, no other knife but that with which his mother was stabbed to death!

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The pleasures of sin must needs be short, because life cannot be long--and they both end together. 

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Cease to pray--and you will begin to sin. 
Prayer is not only a means to prevail for mercy--but also to prevent sin.

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To forsake sin, is to leave it without any thought reserved of returning to it again. 

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The sheep may fall into a ditch--but it is the swine that wallows in it!
Take heed of deliberate sins! 

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"He who is his own teacher, is sure to have a fool for a master!"

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Of all men out of Hell, none more to be pitied than he who hangs over the mouth of it, and yet is fearless of his danger.

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A Christian should deny himself of the world's carnal joys and delights, lest the ungodly say, "These Christians draw their joy out of our cistern!"

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He who has God's heart--cannot lack His arm!

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It is impossible for an evil heart, to think well of an afflicting God.

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"Faithful are the wounds of a friend--but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." Proverbs 27:6 God's wounds cure--sin's kisses kill.

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            Living among those who call themselves Christians for so many years, I am convinced that most have no foundation at all in Christianity.  I asked one deacon in a Baptist Church, "Do you really believe that Jesus was resurrected from the dead?"  He claimed to believe in Jesus, the power of God, wanted to believe in life after death, but really did not believe that Jesus was raised from the dead... so his entire faith was in vain, his church life a fraud.   Even Jesus' disciples, those who knew Him best, were transformed after His resurrection.   You must believe in the rebirth of the Holy Spirit in your life (your old man of sin and rejection replaced by the Holy Spirit of Christ, Christ living in you, a new creation).

            I have asked college students if they had been convinced by their educated professors about evolution.  Again, they want to hum and haw about believing in God.  The devil believes in God and trembles (James 2:19).  I say to the same college student, "You have seen many machines, much technology, do you actually think these machines just "fell" together, evolved?  That today's technology was not designed by a superior mind?"  God has given us His manufacture's handbook, His answer to every question.  Two thousand years on this side of the cross, are we still too stupid to believe and study every word in His book?

Consistent Inconsistency

Consistent Inconsistency

GOD, give us men! 

A time like this demands

Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;

                        by Gilbert Holland, "God, Give Us men!"

            In F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel, the Great Gatsby, the main character, who lived next door to Gatsby, said, "My father said to me, one can not be too judgmental or critical of others because many have not had my advantages."

            In my lifetime (84 years), I have witnessed the effeminizing of men.  A day does not go by  anymore, that you do not hear of a sports figure "coming out of the closet," proud to announce his homosexuality.  In the Satanic gay agenda everything directed toward the destruction of the home, the despising of Christianity, 

            There was a time that older men whether a farmer or banker, doctor or lawyer, gained much satisfaction in the mentoring-tutoring of younger men.  They were not afraid to be seen in public... an old man eating in a restaurant with a young man.  Now, because of the stupidity of television programs, every young man is so afraid that he will be classified by someone as having "sugar daddy."  One of my old, very heterosexual, very decent-lovable, uncles said to me, "I used to enjoy hugging my nephews, even young men in the community who were coming home from college.  I wanted to show them my interest in them.  The fact, and it is a fact, that I missed them, cared for them, wanted nothing but the best for them.  Now, much to my sorrow, I am afraid I will embarrass them."  

            The real man doesn't care what people think.  The real Christian man was never reluctant to lead public prayer at the church house, stand up for decency at the court house, demand absolutes at the school house.  The founding fathers of our nation, on the way to the church house, not only carried his bible, but his musket as well.  It was up to him to defend his family and his nation.  It was up to him to show the world around him whose side he was on... he was on the Lord's side and was not ashamed of God's book.  At the church, you could hear men's voices leading in the singing the great hymns of faith.  His integrity could not be bought at the court house.  The real man wanted his children taught the essentials of education, not just entertained at the school house.  God help the teacher who made sexual advances towards his child, male or female.  

            A blade of grass appears formidable to a small insect.  Under an umbrella of political correctness, the average man has decided to just go through the motions... raising a family, providing mere lip service to secular as well as spiritual activities.  "Let the politicians handle it... that is what all of my taxes pay for.  Let the do-gooders in the civic clubs handle it, that is what they raise money for."    The consistent inconsistency involves the fact that everyone is just going through the motions, doing as little as possible to just get by and get paid.  In 1871, Frederick Nietzsche,  God is dead fame, said, "Christianity has crossed over to a philosophy of gentle morals."  About the same time, Gandhi said, "I would have been a Christian if I had I not known so many Christians."  Real men, any type background, recognize hypocrisy and admire gravitas-strength of real men.  We honor real men on the battlefield... not the new breed-brood of pseudo hybrid of gay warriors.  

            We live in a world of street smart males, their own language punctuated with curse words, their own methods of grooming and dress, highlighted by tattoos and trousers showing their buttocks.  The prisoner's garb-appearance (trousers lowered to show their interest in anal sex) has become the Satanic emblem of maleness.  Perhaps this is the reason so many males have come "out of the closet" pursuing the attention of other males.  Perhaps this is the reason in 2008 there were more divorces and marriages in the United States.  What woman of any character at all would be attracted to such a male?  Black, accomplished-educated women (women who have pursued an education, who still have an appreciation of morals and values) have told me there are so few black men with whom they can associate that they must look toward white-Asian-Latino races for companionship and possible marriage.  They want nothing to do with black men who have such opinion of themselves.  Perhaps this is the reason 72% of our prison populations is made up of black men, that 52% of all black babies are aborted (black population in America is 13%).  There was a time, in America, where the black male was the foundation of the black family, the black community, the black church.  This has changed.  Visiting black churches, as a speaker, I found the black men have taken a back seat... the black churches are now controlled by black women.  

            The slide toward sociological distress in the black community and in the poor white areas started with F.D.R.  My grandfather was the last landowner in our community to sign the papers hereby farmers gave control of their land over to the Agricultural Stabilization Corporation (ASC), a system of agriculture control still very much in practice.  In this government control, all acreage is controlled by government.  My grandfather said, and I remember it as if it was yesterday, "We have turned our land for which we have worked so hard over to the control of the government and future generations will starve because of this control."  Everything is heading in that direction.  Now, the small farmer has disappeared.  You can not sell anything from the farm (meat, vegetables, raw milk, butter, eggs, etc.) without government inspections.  Farmers, who were the back bone of this nation, (in the 1900s 90% of the population lived on farms) just went along to get along, believing promises of politicians.  Early farmers crossing the planes on covered wagons pulled by oxen, had three absolutes in their possession, their gun, their bible, their copy of Blackstone's law.  Because of the dust bowl in mid-America most finally settled in the farming areas of California and California provides most of the food for the country.  We see now how government controls of everything, including water, has destroyed this productive land.  

            Perhaps the greatest demise of real men has happened in law enforcement.  Here were men on whom we depended for protection.  Now, in various costumes, dark glasses, racing expensive racing cars, law enforcement has become an embarrassment to the community they are supposed to serve.  Several times in my life, this blind veteran, who must depend on others for survival, has encountered criminal activity.  To whom should I go-call-depend?  You can be sure that law enforcement will do nothing except protect the criminal... making sure the criminal has all of his rights.

            Every republic that has fallen, every city-state, every democracy, started with a complete downfall of committed spiritual activity.  Look at the average church, how few you have at prayer services.  The 20th century made a beggar of God.  The church taught the incredible lie that God needs us, our money.  For God to be God, He does not need anything.  We need God and we had just enough spirituality left to play church... a country club with a steeple.  The consistent inconsistency of the downfall of every civilization, the downfall of all morality, downfall of marriage and the home, euthanasia of the old and young.  In the fall of the Roman empire, the newborn were taken to the streets to be trampled by horses.

            The most popular comic books of young boys involve action figures... Superman, Iron Man, Spider or Batman.  Young boys want to emulate tough-hard-dedicated men.  Why not real men with real flesh and blood in your own community?  Why not have real men at your church house, real men at the school house (Coaches are always the most popular men teachers at any school.  They have rules.  They require obedience not only in action but in dress and language.  There was a time when every gym in America displayed these words - 'Sportsmanship before victory.')  There was a time when we had real men at the court house, did not seek a lawyer or judge who could be purchased.  There was a time at your house as at my home, when you did not sit in daddy's chair, when you listened when daddy was talking, when a family would consistently GRIEVE as they followed daddy's casket to his grave... burying a real man.  

Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day

Psalm 27:  1-2

            At my father's funeral, many years ago, one of the preachers said, "When he had his stroke, he was picking peaches from trees he had planted.  I well remember those peach tree plantings...  just stalks."  You would have thought they were old sticks of wood to be thrown away but, these stalks in soil, water and sunlight grew into large peach trees.

            I well remember the day I went to Sears to buy shrubbery plantings for a rental house.  A horticulturalist who was there buying shrubbery for his own house said to me, "Tom, don't forget to prune the shrubbery each year."  I would not have believed by  looking at the straggly-stalks they would ever need pruning but, soil-water-sunlight and they became large shrubs.

            We have just had Groundhog Day, people wanting a rodent to tell us about the future.  Man has always wanted future predictions whether from a palm reader with a tent by the roadside, scriptures from the pulpit, or in this day of technology, models conjured from mathematical progressions.  Standing in the reviewing stand of a long parade, we know what has already gone ahead and what we see in front, but have no idea of what is to come in the parade.  Only God knows the beginning and the ending... our lives, this nation, world history.  The purity of Christianity is the trust that Jesus will always be at the crossroads before we get there.

            The one thing I learned in a long life of clinical care and military service is dead men all look the same.  You can not tell the wealthy, educated, successful from others.  Blind men, like those who cannot read or write, must remember things.  The mystery to this writer in dealing with men, some never think deeply or speak seriously... theirs is a casual lifestyle.  I have known men totally lacking in a museum or art gallery.  In Madrid's Prado or the Louvre of Paris, paint strokes of the masters would not be appreciated (canvases that would sell for millions of dollars).  The only strokes that would impress some men would be those on the golf course.  They clap and yell as millionaire ball players run down a ball field.  YET, in a church house or cathedral, a matter of eternal life-a matter of an abundant life, so quiet and dormant.  In a alcoholic bar setting many men sing with gusto, but in God's house, (AND, they all think they are heaven bound) you barely hear a sound when they sing "My Jesus, I love Thee I know Thou art mine."

            There are pulpiteers (preachers) whose spiritual thoughts go no further than their vestments, politicians responsible for crop controls who do not know a weed from a productive plant, Catholic priests who cannot marry who write books on family life and child care, print and electronic journalists (talking heads) who write and talk about countries they have never seen.  We hear almost daily about Obama appointing ambassadors to nations they have never visited.  (Most ambassadors buy their "ambassadorship" by raising tremendous political funds  i.e. Joseph Kennedy, ambassador to England, and Caroline Kennedy, ambassador to Japan.)

            On one of this writer's around the world trips, a trip of flying from one island to another, while on the Marshall Islands, I met two Americans who were living on a boat.  Both had been high-volume, wealthy financiers in Seattle, Washington.  One of them said to me "We got tired of the rat race, the hypocrisy.  Here, on these beautiful South Pacific islands, we live on a boat, eat fresh food, drink fresh water and enjoy fresh air.  You only go around once.  Why kill yourself in the mad, manmade gauntlet of deceit and persecution brought on by your fellow man?   God has given us life and our health has returned since we have learned to live life."

            I noticed, when visiting with them, they had many friends among the natives.  Each day was like a holiday, plentiful food, basking in healthy sunlight, rest and leisure living.  One said, "We are getting ready for heaven."  Man has the mistaken idea that God needs him.  For God to be God, he does not need anything.  Man needs God.  Living for God, living the Christian life is not complicated, just tough.  The nature of man is wanting to control.  God is able, leave the consequences to him.  "Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's."  Romans 14:8

            If a deaf person has never heard music, then music does not exist.  If a blind person has never seen the color red, then red does not exist.  Those who have never known the sweat of farm work think farming is exciting.  Those who have never known the horrors of warfare, think war is romantic.  The grunts on the front lines know the horror of war.  In Afghanistan, this year, hundreds of women and children have been killed just going through the daily activity of life.  Field grade officers, lieutenant colonels to generals, gain promotions during warfare.  The only truly great Americans are those who are the casualties through death or disability during war.  These are those who are forever young.  Their families and friends will never know them as older people.  A one day widow can not be comforted by other widows.  The things that get you through warfare are the same things that get you through other struggles of life.  You become a friend to pain and you trust in the belief that this, too, will pass away.  The soldier does not look too far ahead, just to a good meal and a warm bath.  Now is all you have.

            On the farm, early in the morning, before daybreak, the sound of rain... You knew the activities of the farm did not cease because of rain water.  You walked in the rain to milk the cows and to feed the livestock.  You were their god.  They depended on you.  If these animals had this reality of this perception, then why not God's chief creation?  God does not needs us, but we need him.  And, He has told us over and over, in His book, His instruction manual, "I will never leave thee or forsake thee."   Hebrews 13:5

Thanksgiving, 2013

Count Your Blessings, Hymn

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

- Johnson Oatman, Jr.

This writer and world traveler has shared many events in articles, particularly about holidays in foreign countries. Thanksgiving is a very particularly-American celebration. In my lifetime, it has been overshadowed by the paganism of Halloween and the excesses of Christmas.

I was in Khartoum, Sudan, Africa. I remember it as if it were yesterday, being at the largest hotel in the city, right on the banks of the Nile. Of course every Muslim country is dreary and colorless-- you never see a flower (God's beauty). The housing, clothing, exteriors and interiors of buildings, is very drab. In fact, I do not believe, that in all the Muslim countries I have visited in my life, that I ever saw someone smile or laugh.

There were several other Americans in the hotel on Thanksgiving. Evidently, they wanted to impress us Americans by serving us a Thanksgiving meal. We Americans were all sitting together at one table, in one dining room, when they brought in some birds of some type, which they had prepared. The legs were sitting straight up, pointed at the ceiling,  and the outsides were parched. Of course I had no appetite for this food-- in fact, in most foreign countries, I would eat around the fringes of everything in an attempt to discern what I was eating. I lost much weight in my travels.

As I have stated many times, you are Christian, with everything that Christianity entails-- daily thankfulness. You are American, with everything that that entails. Not I am an American or I am a Christian.

The apostle Paul tells us about thankfulness in his letter to Colossia:

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:15-17

We live in a profane world, in a broken culture-- in entropy, slipping and sliding towards chaos. The most difficult question I have ever been asked, in a long life of interaction with both believers and nonbelievers, is, "If God is love, why all the suffering in the world-- poverty, disability, war, criminal activity?" Particularly, the question is, "Why do good people suffer-- especially innocent children?" And we could just as easily ask, "Why did God not spare his own Son from flogging and crucifixion?", or "Why did God allow slavery-- the most inhuman activity in world history?" Think of the slave breakers, the inhuman activity in the hearts of some humans, to be able to beat a slave daily, until they were in absolute submission-- much like the mule skinner, beating a mule or horse into absolute submission. We must allow-- in our thinking, in our psyche-- harsh truth, the fact that God allows Satan, not only to tempt us, but to abuse us. Never forget, God is boss. He is in charge, and Satan can only go as far as He lets him. 

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Hebrews 4:15

In this season of Thanksgiving, we should be so thankful that life is more than temptation and abuse, warfare and criminal conduct. I can still see my grandmother getting out her glasses, from a case, on which was the name, "Dr. Edward Bizzel." I knew Dr. Bizzel, and the joy he had given my grandmother through glasses, with which she could read her Bible. But, what made her more elated than her joy at being able to read her Bible, was having her own grandson be able to write her prescription. From that day, she never stopped talking about her glasses, prescribed by her oldest doctor-grandson.  At this time, we can be thankful that we are producers, not moochers. My grandmothers were thankful that they never had a child or grandchild who ended up in jail or depended on Welfare.

On one of my last visits to one aunt, who was totally crippled by arthritis, and unable to get around or do anything, she talked about her childhood, drawing water in a bucket from a well, to wash clothes. She said, "The trials of my childhood, those of my parents and grandparents, seem so trivial when, with Thanksgiving, I realize that every one of my nieces and nephews have graduated from college, have good jobs, and are responsible and productive citizens. But most of all, that they know Jesus Christ as their savior, and every one-- without exception-- are living lives that make me very proud."

Thanksgiving is more than overeating, spending at "super centers," and waiting in line to get a special deal. African American people, and even slaves, were once described as, "The happiest people on the face of the Earth." The happiest people on the face of the Earth, should be those who have productive lives-- lives of encouragement. Mark Twain said, "Politeness costs so little." One who is thankful, long-suffering, and encouraging to others, is a testimony to Thanksgiving.

Ancient of Days

As one ages, younger think of you as being ancient. Speaking of the Depression of the Great Depression, even those of moderate means cannot imagine “What it could have been.” The IMF, and even England's Federal Reserve headed since 1973 by Sir Gordon Richardson, have said that we are headed into a Global Depression.

Even the prophet Isaiah, living around 800BC referred to olden times when the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea (1400 BC) as ancient times. (Isaiah 46:10)

Remarkable, the book of Isaiah, 66 Chapters, closely paralleling the 66 books of the Bible.

From Old Testament Isaiah, to the New Testament, about 600 years, the “so called” dumb years, when God did not reveal Himself to the world.

From Romans to Philemon, we have a message to the church. Perplexity and complexity of many, toward the Bible, the mixing of law with the redemption and grace, of Jesus Christ. Perhaps Paul, shown as a short, unattractive but brilliant Jew, was miserable in his explaining the Christian's relationship with the law as found in the seventh chapter of Romans... even more so in the book of Hebrews. Through, salvation, through Jesus Christ, freedom from the law, still trying to keep the law... Saturday, Sabbath, etc. Entire denominations, claiming Christ as their savior (Seventh Day Adventists). Employees telling me, that they will not answer a phone from 5pm on Friday afternoon until 5pm on Saturday afternoon. Much like visiting Israel, Jewish hotels, which serve cold food on their Sabbath. I have known women in Baptist churches who would not cook, on Sunday, the Lord's Day.

The very foundation of our knowing right from wrong, the Jewish law, on which all law is based, yet fulfillment by Christ of that law, giving us freedom.

Confusion comes in not understanding the difference in law and grace. The law of gravity, laws of motion, laws of sowing and reaping, were as fundamental in ancient times as modern times. Essential that we learn that God is all wise, Sovereign in everything, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

Anyone can count low hanging apples on an apple tree, the seed inside one apple. We have not learned to “roll our burdens” onto God. (Psalm 37) We have not learned that God can determine all the apple trees from one seed, all wise God. 500 billion stars – He named them all. If your students, you send to college, were sufficiently indoctrinated by you about the wisdom of Ancient of Days, they would not fall so quickly prey to the wisdom of college professors (Romans 7:24) For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. (Romans 7:15) The important word in this seventh chapter is the word concupiscence (Romans 7:8) Sin is like a virus. The DNA of a virus leads to multiplication, supposed to multiply themselves, just as sin increases. You in Christ and Christ in you, redeems you from such.

Faith is a verb, “action based on belief, sustained by confidence.” We have the confidence of forgiveness. Sins of the past, present, and future.

Many of us are confused in the keeping of many laws, certainly not ceremonial law. But, the tithe is the Lord's, whether we give it or not. All my life, I have heard preachers and teachers who are supposed to know better, speak of giving your money as a tithe. We own nothing, all belongs to Him. We return His tithes to Him, along with our offerings.

The apostle Peter is the best example I can think of in his and our special relationship with Christ. Peter did not lie before Pilate, rather before servants. To whom do we lie? We have acts of faith everyday, valleys of weeping throughout life (Psalm 84) No room for compromise, just go through these valleys, prove Him, do not hesitate with tithes, offerings. (Malachi 3:10) (Although Peter denied Christ three times, on resurrection morning, Christ specifically asked that Peter be notified.) (Mark16:7)

We cannot reduce God to our performance. The Holy Spirit of God dwelling within the real Christian replaces the spirit of law and death.

It is time for men to put on the whole armor of God. Ancient Athenian warriors, going to war for Athens, returned from battle either walking or laying dead on their shield.

Golden Escalator

In 1865, my great grandfather, Rev. P.T. Lucas was 10 years old. According to established records, he came from one of the earliest colonial families, his family owned the northern part of one county (Wilson county). He was an outstanding farmer and a minister of the Gospel, until he died in 1912, one of the most exciting times in American History: first telephone, first electric lights, first motor vehicles, first indoor plumbing, first paved roads, proliferation of education opportunities. From the time of my father's birth, 1908, until his death in 1985, some of the great advances in history, technology such as the discovery of DNA, nano-exploits, medical procedures, even men traveling to the moon.

In all these advances, human nature has changed very little. One of my very good friends, an army medical officer, psychiatrist, practiced in an army hospital, his wife, also a psychiatrist, practiced in a nearby town. As he was assigned from army hospital to army hospital, she could always start a practice anywhere, so great is the need for psychiatrists. Like most psychologists and psychiatrists I have known, they were in much worse condition than the patients they were trying to treat.

She was extremely overweight, a total slob, he was the most unkempt military officer I have ever known, just did not care, but as you will find with every individual who practices in these fields, whether you hear on them radio, television or elsewhere, one phrase always dominates, “and that is alright too.” No matter what a person says, or does, it is alright. So, any patient or client, leaves their presence feeling that whatever word or action is acceptable. Most of these people, doctor or patient, honestly feel there is no accountability or responsibility in this world, and they certainly do not believe in the world to come.

As the army psychiatrist told me, “I was born, I get as much enjoyment out of living as possible, this is all there is to it, then I die and I become fertilizer. Some people may have great needs for thoughts of an afterlife, since they have made such a miserable mess of the one in reality, perception is not reality and I have no perception of a heaven or hell.”

I find that people in general, sitting on church pews or not, do not believe in hell, Jesus talked more about hell than heaven. There is more scripture concerning hell than heaven. But I have found in my long life, regardless of what Christians or others may tell you, what they pray or sing about, most, in reality, do not believe in hell. Simple matter, if they did, knowing that God will not allow any sin into His heaven, their lives would be lived differently. I have not met very many people who did not think that they would eventually wind-up in heaven. People do what they do because they believe what they believe. Our entire lives turn on an axis of wanting to believe the best, even though we know about corruption in government, increasing crime, man's expedited downfall, we want to believe that everything is going well...that nothing is really as bad as we know it is, that corruption in government is not as bad as we think, that our education system is not as bad as we are told. We want to think we can eat or drink anything and have it not affect our bodies.

Remember, your doctor is just a highly-paid, well-educated repairman. 300,000 Americans die each year from obesity-related deaths. In a country that throws away 28% of its food...in a world where many would be glad to live from your trash can. Where $6 billion was spent in 1996 on women having their nails done, $50 billion spent each year in America on weight-loss programs. $870 million spent last year just in building new McDonald's arches (golden arches).

From 1799 to 1892, even the Supreme Court declared America a Christian nation. Last year, 2009, $6 billion was spent in America, on video games (I have been around the world 8 times, traveled every continent, 157 of the world's countries, I know what I am talking about), while a large part of the world's population was hungry, 11 weeks after the floods, millions in Pakistan are still underwater. Can one even imagine that today we are bombing mothers and children whose homes are still underwater? And, as just discovered, would a Christian nation send scientists to Guatemala, infect people with a deadly disease, not even treat 341 of the 400 infected? 71 of the 400 infected died.

For many years, from the platform and in print, I have said, “the most important endeavor of a human mind is to learn to read.” I never cease to be amazed that young people, after years in school, cannot read. There are two basic reasons for learning to read: Firstly, you learn to read in order to read the Bible, God's Word, this gives you the lighted path toward eternal life. Secondly, you learn to read in order to take care of your physical body, your physical life. I am convinced, and no one has proven me wrong yet, that a person who can read can learn to care for his body. You know more about your body than anyone else, when a doctor looks at you, or even examines you, he is running through a maze of expecteds, tinged with indifference. If you have any intelligence at all, you know that the doctor's office is interested in just one thing: getting paid. Most of his staff, just keeping a job, it is simply a matter of routines, just going through the motions.

There is enough literature available, when you can read, so that you can educate yourself about healthcare. There is no reason why anyone should be sick, if you educate yourself about what you put in your mouth, if you learn to care for your body, such as stretching your muscles, rest, proper elimination (elimination is as important as addition). It costs to eat healthy, the metabolism of your body, the most phenomenal, magnificent creation of the Creator, depends on nutrition just as much as your automobile depends on gasoline. Food sources have been completely depleted of the soil minerals and other nutrition essentials necessary for health, but there are supplements, herbs, reliably made vitamins, to assist in your health essentials.

Get away from that slop and trash on that useless idol, your television set. If you do not know how to read, there are illiteracy groups which will teach you how to read. In the 21st century, one of the shames of this nation, and particularly the state of North Carolina, the illiteracy rate is as high now as it was 100 years ago. I cannot conceive of professional educators, school board members, passing onto the streets, young people who cannot read or write. When you can read, you can learn how to care for your own body, and the health of your family, everything else is just periphery.

The main reason you must learn to read is the welfare of your eternal life and the welfare of your physical life. This is the golden escalator moving into effective, rewarding living, an abundant life.

Painting by the Number

I heard blind Dr. Helen Robinson of the University of Chicago say one time, “I wish I could see well enough just to walk from one room to another without walking into things.” Only a fellow blind person can understand this. God left me with a shadow of vision in one eye for many years, which enabled me to maneuver through airports and get around without walking into things. This was about 40 years ago, since then, it has been a world of blackness. I remember, when I could still see, visiting the world's great art museums, the Louvre in Paris, El Prado in Madrid, etc. When you look at the great works of art, those that sell for millions of dollars, analyzing brush strokes with a magnifier, you can hardly imagine one with the patience, talent, tenacity to give such majesty even to the smallest leaf. Later, someone gave me a painting for my office, painted by number, there is a tremendous difference. So it is with life and death.

It bothers me that some take life so casually, by the number, while others, every minute, every second is a challenge. I believe those that wear the “Roman collar” are not subjected to the same plateaus of indifference as the rest of us. As my father would say, “the preacher came riding up to the church in a nice car, well dressed, associating with the best people in the area, while on Sunday morning, about the time he got his Sunday shoes on, a cow jumped the fence, or hog rooted under a fence, and he had to get outside and get the animal back in. The preacher got paid whether the crops drowned or dried up. Everywhere the preacher went, people were on their best behavior, put the best flatware on the table, tastiest food on the platter.”

Every time I visited the Vatican, I was humbled by Catholics who were there for the first time, the tears that came so quickly. They didn't mind seeing all that opulence, gold, paintings, wealth beyond compare. Why would any member of the Catholic hierarchy want to die and go to heaven? In some of the poorest cities of the world, I always visited the cathedral, I would peek around some of the locked gates, and there were always limousines in the parking lot. Wealth inside the fenced grounds, absolute poverty among the people, young ragged Catholics begging from the tourists.

On July 18th, from his summer palace, Castel Gondolfo, Pope Benedict XVI spoke on essentials of life, he said, “[we must] rest from our daily labors so that we may give time to the one thing that is truly necessary in our lives -listening to the word of God in attentive stillness. God is that 'inner light of love and truth' that gives every action meaning, value, and joy.”

It is easy for a man to speak of joy who eats from golden utensils off of golden plates, the best food which high-paid chefs can prepare, unchallenged by the risk, deceits, decadence of world, who has people bowing to him all day long, kissing his ring, and a billion people in absolute servitude. Can you imagine Christ living in such splendor here on this earth? Christ, God incarnate, born in a borrowed stable, buried in a borrowed tomb.

I found Francis Thompson's grave site in London, this wonderful British poet wrote, “Love is a many splendored thing.” God is love, and Christ told us that he is truth. (John 17:17, John 14:6)

Our blessed Lord never owned a house, a bed, more than one pair of shoes, yet the cattle on a thousand hills were his (Psalm 50:10). All the gold, all the silver, every element in the earth, all made by Him (John 1). Is it not wonderful to know that we are His “workmanship” (Ephesians 2:10)? How we short change ourselves by loving the things of this world (1 John 2:15). Satan wants those who bear the name of Christ to love the world, and the things that are in the world. When you put your idols of technology, luxury living, self-aggrandizement, even insulated opulence of the church ahead of Him, God is jealous. Because He tells us that He is a jealous God (Exodus 34:14, Exodus 20:5).

The Rockefellers (Baptists), owners of Standard Oil, got rich selling oil for 10 cents a barrel. They built the great Riverside Church in New York, and have done much good, but that good will never erase the harm of “planned parenthood”, which they founded and financed.

The Saudis got rich selling oil for 1$ a barrel (5000 princes, royal family) and have given much of their wealth to many of the world's 2 billion member poor Muslim population. But amidst the conflicts involved, they do not mind killing one another (900,000 killed in Iraq-Iran War, 1988). There is no doubt in any one's mind that Iran is about to be involved in war again. The regime in power in Iran will be taken out, the three sects of Muslims: Sunni, Shi'ah, Khawarij will decide who dominates the world stage.

The world powers, including China and Russia, oil being the lubricant of all interests, (Russia interested in pipeline, China in energy supply) all have chosen sides...Israel has nothing to worry about (Genesis 12). World powers, including the Arabs, if they will read the Bible, will know that Israel's protection is predestined. There is a world coalition against Iran, Obama has already been bowing and scraping to the Saudis, this pending Middle East conflict is his trump card for reelection. It is only Americans who do not know what the world's Muslims know, that Obama is a Sunni Muslim. Democrats cannot read print, numbered paintings, or anything else because they are too busy with abortions and the gay agenda. Democrats pushed a communist-capitalist-Muslim into the White House, but many will survive to repent.

Crucial as the world stage, our national dilemma: bioethics, cloning, stem cells, biological warfare via germs, artificial and synthetic biology (hematology directed towards synthetic blood for use with pets and in warfare), cryogenics (not realizing that ice crystals so damage tissue). Scientists have so embarrassed themselves about many things (Global Warming, Gulf Oil, Recalled Drugs, etc.), many still believing that man is just a pile of chemicals, the injustice of killing one human being to save another. Thinking that the power who created the scientists, does not have the power to change everything. We too are looking for change, the change which the creator, not the creature, can make.

Two-Headed One-Party System

Returning from the Korean War and becoming active again in the early 1960s, knowing how my family had been treated as Republicans, I decided to align my political activity with the Democrats. And so, I became a very active Democrat, even president of the State Young Democrats. Both my parent's families for many generations, were very active in the Republican Party, a minuscule minority in the state; discriminated against, with absolutely no opportunity to enjoy any job where state money was involved- school teaching, highway department, etc. I knew that if I were going to ever advance in this state, politically or otherwise, it would be necessary to register as a Democrat and become a contributor to the Democrat Party.


Of course, at that time the Democrats were the conservative party in the south and in the nation. The Solid South in the 1960s was all Democrat and very conservative. Lyndon Johnson depended on Republicans to pass his Civil Rights Program. It was not until I attended the Republican National Convention in 1964 at the Cow Palace in San Fransisco when Barry Goldwater was nominated, that, much to the insistence of a friend who was a Republican candidate for Congress, that I decided that my principles were more important than any priority or prestige I might derive from the Democrat Party.


I had been sickened one day at the Sir Walter Hotel in Raleigh, sitting at a table with Governor Sanford and Representative Fountain, hearing them talk of how the Democrats would always control the state of North Carolina because Democrats would always have the black vote, the teacher's vote, all Federal, State and County worker's votes, as well as the votes of all other minorities such as the gays and the disabled. It has certainly proven that they were right, since for over 100 years the Democrats have been in lock-step control of the state. But, it did not prove that I was right to stay with such a monopoly party in which not one woman, black, or Republican was in the legislature.


It was strictly a “good old boy” white male government in total control, nepotism, country club, power base who controlled where every tax dollar was spent, regardless of need. I have been in several police-state countries and there is no more control there than in the Solid South, Democrat states. There was not even a Republican primary; rather the winner of the Democrat primary was the winner of the election at every crossroads in the state. If there were a chance that a Republican candidate could win an election (such as my good friend who was running for Congress as a Republican) the legislature would immediately jury-mander district lines.


My big problem then, as now, this 'Bible Belt' state where Christian people are supposed to honor one another, one political party could be so dishonorable. The Christian churches fell right in-line with this autonomous form of government. The blacks, who had escaped slavery one time, seemed inclined to regain their slavery. The cotton mill workers and tenant farmers, just surviving from the largess of white elitists, seemed inclined to regain slavery.


Highway 95-301 to the ocean was the poorest area of the United States-- few paved roads, few utilities, just the scraps from the table and yet voted solid Democrat. The western part of the state, more enlightened, beginning to have some Republican insolence were getting paved roads and better schools. Competition for votes, like competition for everything, brings advantage.


Nationally, the past twenty-five years has seen both parties become almost undefinable. Starting with Ronald Regan, the liberals in both parties have joined in a socialistic jamboree to eliminate all conservative thought, Republican free enterprise from government and we now have a two-headed one-party system. With Republicans such as the two Bush presidents, conjured from the Rockefellers and other northern liberal factions, the idea of small government, low taxes, family values, and integrity of purpose have been dismantled, dragged right in by Clinton and other socialist travelers, aided and abetted by the media.


The fast-track of NAFTA and CAFTA have seen industry and agriculture disappear. The denizens of change established a plutocracy of control which our fore fathers would vomit to witness. We already see signs of revolution in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. In the 'seize the moment' mentality which led to the French Revolution and the 'no crisis should go to waste' mentality which led to the Russian Revolution, Mr. Obama and Mr. Emanuel, the Jews leading the financial spectacle of bail-outs and sell-outs (Bernanke, Paulson, Geithner, etc.), have water-boarded the American tax-payer into crippling torture.


I have traveled through every Communist country. The difference in the Communist System in the text book type Communist world (USSR, China, Cuba, etc.) is that in the truly Communist state, the enslaved people have everything furnished to them and make no decisions at all (housing, health care, employment, etc.). In this Democratic Republic, called the United States, those who are stupid enough to work are forced to make their own decisions about employment, housing, health care, etc. On top of that, they are taxed to the gills to support those who will not work, who believe that government should furnish their wants as well as supply their needs. The only thing missing to completely establish Mr. Obama's radical government is law enforcement entrenchment. Relax, that is on the way; moving closer and closer everyday.


In the rural community where I lived the hardworking farmers who had barely survived were so happy to get that little green check from the government each month. One would sit on a little stool by his mailbox and when the rural mail carrier would stick his check in the box, within two seconds his hand was in there grabbing it. Compared to his ancestors, who had lived on fat back and sweet potatoes all during the winter, he felt so fortunate to have “free money”.


The average Social Security check is $1,100, which means many get less than $1,000 and a few $1,200. As with the doctors who thought they were going to get paid well with Medicare, the SS recipients will find that their checks will get smaller as inflation raises prices for everything they use higher. As with the schools who began to take government money, when you take government dollars, you do what government tells you to do. The government will support you in prison or out; in the Communist System, you have chosen life on your knees-- a craving not a praying position.