Images of Divine Mercy

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

Psalm 1:1-3,  King James Version

            This writer is not attempting to self serve. I want to share one of the great moments of my life. In my lifetime-- before plastics, zippers, and electronics, before such words as Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, apps-- when, particularly during The Great Depression, most of the population of our nation was just intent on survival. I learned many years ago that most people's whose hands have been mauled on the upward climb on the ladder of survival, just want to block it out of their minds. We should never forget the pit from which we were dug. (Isaiah 51:1) It has never embarrassed me to tell anyone that I was born and raised, surviving, through divine mercies, on a dirt road, without electric power lines, phone lines, and water lines. My ancestors had gone to one-room schools. The school I attended, across the street from the school where governor Charles B Aycock and both my grandfathers attended, had 12 grades. There were 13 in my graduating class, but I was blessed to attend the University at Chapel Hill, blessed to have the energy, stamina, and intelligence to be able to work my way through school.

            I sincerely believe that giving is a part of my DNA, and so it should be with every person who claims the name of Christ. God gave the world and everything in it, the spark of life to mankind, whom He created. He gave His only son to redeem us from our sins, and His son gave His life. I truly believe that saving is a matter of character, that maturity is learning to delay pleasure. Called tight, stingy, frugal, I have saved 50 cents of every dollar I have made. The greatest pleasure of my life has been giving to God's work, and to those active in God's work. There have been many receivers of my philanthropy. One being Mt. Olive University, Mt. Olive, NC. This college is the "pearl" of a very small Baptist denomination. I am not a member of that denomination, but my parents, grandparents, great-grandparents back many generations, were members, and I have given large sums of money to that college and denomination (two $3,000 pastor of the year awards, two $2,000 Sunday school teacher awards, $3,000 and $4,000 awards for students, faculty and staff awards, scholarships at MOU) I gave $100,000 for a student loan fund, and $100,000 for a heritage room to honor founders of the denomination. The university decided to hang a portrait in my honor. I had asked that it not be done, but it was done anyway. These are the remarks I made at the ceremony, before a large group gathered for a lecture:

            "You honor me with your presence here today. Every day of my life, at 4 o'clock in the morning, I have a communion service, and a time of prayer-- just me and God. This morning I asked God to be particularly good to me today, that I would say the right thing today. He said that if I get wound up, you will be here all day. The last time I was here was to give the graduation address. Dr. Byrd, Jeff and many of you, will remember this, I was so very sick.

            Years ago, a pastor came to my office, inviting me to speak at their church's homecoming. He wanted to know what I charged for a speaking engagement. It was the Pikeville Baptist Church. I said, 'Oh, Brother Sasser, you have this all wrong. I will pay your folks to listen to me!'

            I want you folks to ask God to forgive Brother Jeff Daughtry for the wonderful introduction he made, all the nice things he said about me, and then I want you to ask God to forgive me for enjoying the introduction so much. I can truthfully say, with Thomas A Kempis, who in the 15th century, wrote the book Imitation of Christ, 'I am what I am, before God, no more, no less.'

            I am old enough to remember-- this is my 84th year-- the time when there was just a two-lane road by this town. I remember coming by this very spot, where we are now located, in my 1941 Plymouth, on the way to Brunswick and Bladen counties, selling Bibles during the summer of my college years at Chapel Hill. The place where this large and beautiful campus is located, was just a big farm. Dr. Henderson gave this farm to the university and hard-working, God-fearing people, of a small, mostly rural denomination, raised money for these buildings through church suppers. But, when you have buildings, you have what buildings can do. When you have faculty and students, you have what they can do. When you have praying, committed, Christians, giving to this school, then you have what God can do. I am convinced that, like this school, this county, this state, this world needs what God can do. My life has been intent on doing God's work.

            My Aunt Mini, reminded me often of a poem I gave, at the age of 6, at a county Sunday school meeting. She said I had on a white suit, short pants, white shoes, and a red bowtie. It was 80 years ago and I remember that it was at the Raines Crossroads Church, or at Stony Creek. The poem: Keep on Keeping On. That is what we will continue to do here in our churches, and elsewhere.

            The greatest disability of my life has not been my spending most of my life in total blindness as a 100% disabled veteran. The great disability was not the poverty in which many of us were raised. My great disability was not in the struggles I had in going through 8 years of university education, training to be able to help my fellow man. My greatest disability was not ever getting much encouragement from anyone. I always felt that if I had been burned at the stake, most of my family, relatives and associates would have added more wood to the fire. My aim always, in giving to this institution, was as unto God, and to give all of you encouragement.

            I pray that God will keep you close to His heart of love, and underneath His hand of protective care."

            After the presentation of the portrait, there was a wonderful luncheon for all the guests. It was far, far better for the school to recognize my efforts while alive, than after I am gone. Too many times, and it happens particularly in families, appreciation is not recognized/ realized/ vocalized until it is too late. I have always been bothered by family members spending large sums of money to buy flowers for a dead father or mother, flowers which the deceased cannot appreciate, flowers which would have been enjoyed and appropriate when they were alive

Shocking Isn't It

Keep these facts in mind when "donating".

As you open your pockets for yet another natural disaster, keep these facts in mind: 

Marsha J. Evans, President and CEO of the American Red Cross... Salary for year ending 06/30/03 was $651,957 plus expenses. (That's $74.42 an hour For EVERY hour of EVERY day.)

Brian Gallagher, President of the United Way receives a $375,000 base salary, plus numerous expense benefits. (That's $42.80 an hour for EVERY Hour of EVERY day.)

UNICEF CEO receives $1,200,000 per year plus all expenses and a ROLLS ROYCE car where ever he goes and only cents of your dollar goes to the cause. (That's $1369.86 an hour for EVERY hour of EVERY day.)

The Salvation Army's Commissioner Todd Bassett receives a salary of only $13,000 per year (plus housing) for managing this $2 billion dollar organization.

No further comment necessary.


Addition by Dr. Morris:

Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day, a day first set aside by George Washington for “thanks giving”. A national holiday giving glory to God for His benefits. Today, is black Friday, when normal American citizens make fools of themselves, getting up real early, going to stores, trying to find bargains, things, most of the time, things they do not need.

This totally blind, 100% disabled, service-connected, medical officer veteran of the Korean conflict spent Thanksgiving Day listening to radios, people talking about eating, feeding the homeless, feeding prisoners. There is nothing wrong about feeding our armed forces, feeding prisoners, feeding the homeless, as long as we keep everything in perspective.

In this long line of ludicrous salaries for CEOS of “do-gooder” organizations, which are supposed to be in servitude for a cause, I want to add the Audubon Society, those interested in bird-life. The President of the Audubon Society gets $180,000 a year. This group rented office space from me, in all my rentals, over many years, it was the first time it was necessary to completely redo a building, including replacing the carpet.

I have one policy in contributing to these do-gooder organizations: IF they live better than I do, they should not expect me to give my money. IF they do not have the same moral fortitude that I have, they should not expect my money. IF they have not given as much as I have, to God and country, they should not expect a contribution from me. I am so tired of people who get these big jobs, however they get them, do-gooder groups, politicians, pastors, who are supposed to be in servitude for a cause, but just use that cause to live better than the rest of us.


The goodness and kindness of God leads one into a path of servitude, spiritual or physical. Just as salvation is His choice, not our choice, so we should feel that working for a cause, whether it is the welfare of birds (Audubon), people in distress (Red Cross), community development (United Way), faith in God should determine our passion, just as God's Word revives a dead soul.

So many civic, political, spiritual, people and groups have forgotten their mission. Do we actual think the saints, martyrs of our faith, could actually be paid for their commitment or devotion, they knew that life was in giving and even dying for a cause. There is no resurrection, no redemption without death to self. Take two kernels of corn, totally dead, plant them in your yard, in the good earth. When these dead kernels (but with the passion of life inside, dead soul) sprout, give them water, make sure of enough sunlight. The ears of corn from these two plants (thousands of kernels), planted in fields, those in turn planted in fields, exponentially for seven years, would soon have enough corn plants to feed the world, much could be done with money honestly, sacredly given, if it were not for the greed involved by those who have their hands in the management.

Spam, Scam, Flim-Flam

At The Republican National Convention at the San Diego Convention Center in 1996, I heard General of the Army Colin Powell say, “ Americans have forgotten the word 'shame'”. No truer words were ever spoken in my lifetime. There is no shame anymore...when a high school girl walks around her high school classmates...pregnant. Parents are not shamed anymore when their son goes to jail for illegal drug possession. The country club is not shamed anymore when one of its members is cited for fornication or possession of pornography. Churches are not shamed anymore when the pastor leaves town with a girl about the age of his daughter. The state is not shamed anymore when their most powerful politician, speaker of the house goes to prison for corruption. The state is not shamed anymore when their longest serving senator is involved in sexual perversion with young boys or a female state senator is a flaming lesbian. Grandparents are not shamed anymore when they see their granddaughter tattooed and pierced like a heathen. A school system is not shamed anymore when a teacher is caught in a car in a sexual “act” with a student. And so it goes. I could give a very long list, but the public, in general, so called Christians, no longer care about the values of life or living. Without God you cannot know God.

It has become a “me” generation. “If it don't affect me, I am unconcerned”. Concern is a lost word in most vocabularies.

Last evening, as is the case most evenings, when someone calls asking for money for some purpose, a “fire fighter” or so he said, called me asking for money...so the firefighters could go to the local schools and teach the importance of preventing fires. He said, “have you checked your smoke detector”? I said, and I did not mean to be impertinent with the man cause I know he was sincere in what he was doing, “you are talking to an 80 year old, housebound, in bed, totally blind, 100% disabled service connected veteran. I pay multiple thousands of dollars every year in taxes to support schools which should be teaching children many things including the dangers of fire...which evidently they do not. Have you considered, the many elderly people such as me, who live alone, not able to check their smoke detectors who, in case of fire, in my case, would not be able to see the fire or get out of the house? Don't you think your time would be better spent doing things like that...people who have already proven themselves to God, family, and country, people who have already battled the world, the flesh, the devil”?

I have received two letters, this week, from the local sheriff asking for my support and money. Any time I need the assistance of law enforcement, they are always too busy taking care of criminals...making them comfortable at the local jail. Some years ago, and at one time, before it became a place strictly for the healthy and the sighted (YMCA), I was in the steam room at the local place (I reported the discrimination of the local YMCA to the US Justice Department and they sent hearing officers down, but the lying people who run the local place, kept all of the information from the public). A young man came in, and sat in the steam room, he did not know me, know that I was totally blind or anything about me. As always, when someone would come in, I have the innate decency to be as pleasant as possible and many had the good manners to tell me who they were. Since he did not know anything, I said “who are you”?, he told me he was a state corrections officer from Raleigh and had come down to observe the local “corrections facility”. I told him I had employed a female sheriffs deputy for a few days on a part time basis and she had told me more than I wanted to know about the local facility. These are his exact words, “if you were to take the people in the nursing homes in this area out of the nursing home and put them in the jail, they would get better care there”. He said, “I have never seen anything like it, they go out and get the latest movies for them to watch on the weekends. The inmates spend their time working out and just sitting around watching television, they eat better than I do”. I said to him, “I tell my accountant each year that if I don't pay all my tax maybe the government will arrest me...at least I will eat better and have my laundry done for me. There is just so much an old blind man could do in prison and I would live better there”.

Next to slavery, the greatest shame of this republic has been its treatment of disabled veterans and handicapped citizens. Speaking with many handicapped people, over many years, because they have heard me on the radio, I find that most are afraid to say anything to anyone...particularity social service officials...because they are so afraid of losing the small check they may or may not get and on which their family must depend. You see, the world had turned upside down. When the country was established by the founding fathers, we had God at the head of the country, then family, then government. Now, it is just the reverse. Government is in total control...and as soon as the health care legislation is passed... government will be in full control. And, government is in complete control of your family...all your home activities. God has been put in third place totally out of consideration.

Man can only live one day without water, many days without food. Our water systems have become completely compromised through filth. The poisons of fluoride and chlorine used in the filtration system and treating systems, are destroying the health of the public, the masculine hormones of men, all because they are poisons. Our foods, genetically modified, have little nutrition value. There was a time, before chemical-trails from planes and sun screens that the human body got enough sun exposure to fight off disease. The most important supplement you can put in your diet is vitamin D. Even in the great flu epidemic at the beginning of the 20th century, patients treated with long exposures to sunlight got well much quicker. Not only have your children been Flim-Flammed of their education, not only have you savers been Flim-Flammed of your savings, not only have you mortgaged homeowners been Flim-Flammed of your homes, not only have you who are sick been Flim-Flammed by Big Pharma, not only have Veterans been Flim-Flammed of their promised care, but the most spectacular Flim-Flam in history is taking place as we speak...your young sons and daughters enslaved by the military, sent to third world countries to exploit and kill mothers and children for whom your sons and daughters have been taught to have compassion.

We found a place to get rid of our depleted uranium...coatings for the bullets used in modern warfare. All over these battlefields and the destroyed homes of “real people”, you have those who will have life-long disabilities just as our service people who use the poison. Don't be shocked, when we as a nation, have floods, wind storms (such as the north east this past weekend), earthquakes, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Don't be shocked when laboratory made diseases encompass this continent (just as man made AIDS has taken over Africa). The Eugenics, environmentalists, population control crowd still control the worlds wealth and power brokers. The state controlled media will never allow you to see the tragedies affecting the lives of 95% of the worlds population who are either already poor or heading in that direction.

For those of you who know Christ as Savior, we know the end of the story. We are winners.