New Tribalism

#1758

"What I believe about God is the most important thing to me.- A.W Tozer

             

Smart intelligent people are just as sinful as the less intelligent, less attractive people. They just hide it better. Dr. Benjamin Franklin said, "in the blackness of night all cats look grey." It is a known fact of sociology, biology, and theology that the men

tal ability of God's chief creation, mankind, is limited. People are not as smart as they think they are. Usually seeks their own levels-standards-limits. We like to be fooled, like to think that things will "work out." For instance, there was a war on poverty... now we have more poverty. There was a war on drugs... now we have more drugs. We are engaged on a war on terrorism and have had nothing but increased terrorism. Ever since this writer was old enough to pay any attention to political advertisements, "why Johnny cant read." Increased billions every year to spend on public schools, yet more and more parents home school their children. An attempt to escape the war against education. An education system intent on entertaining, indoctrinating. instilling liberalism... rather than the fundamentals of learning.

            My Grandparents never saw a movie. The first movie most of us saw (poverty stricken, tobacco farmlands of Eastern North Carolina) were movies shown at night, outside on the side of a large store building. Early movies were westerns-shoot them ups. Many had jail scenes, some females attempting to smuggle into the jail a saw blade to her boyfriend. All these years later, oceans of technology, latest "jail break"  New York state, saw blade smuggled in (frozen meat.)

            Separation of human beings via skin color, interest, religious traditions, has always been as normal  and as natural in human beings as was the various tribes found in America  when our ancestors arrived here. Paleontologists have written about the various native American tribal customs-food-methods of warfare. Indians, Onuwii (Eskimos,) just as did the Jewish tribes in early bible history. Enjoyed their owned traditions-customs-heritage. In America, farm life moved to urban centers, city clubs, social clubs religious denominations were formed because some people, some families, from DNA or just sheer luck preferred the association and company of one another. To see these people on the streets, you would not recognize their differences, but a Pentecostal group is totally different from a Episcopalian service. Men lined up for a physical examination at a military hospital, hair shorn, perhaps the same type of underwear, can not be distinguished... the Dr's son from the janitors son, but putting on the accomplishments of stores-education and there is a tremendous difference on the golf links.

            Mr. LBJ, reverend Jackson, Mr. Obama and his elk, would have complete integration the justice" of same sex marriage, elimination of clonkers. Miracle of midnight basketball, "don't ask don't tell," and all will be as wonderful as Nicola linen or Joseph Stalin or the Mao Zedong. Mao killed 80million  Chinese trying to accomplish this. Stalin killed 40 million Russians, great society. Yet after all this murder-mayhem-welfare malarkey and I have spent much time in both places, the people, socialists comrades, still separate themselves. Gods computer did not install the right programs for human equality. There has always been inequality. Sheep and goats, fare sees and sinners, pagans and puritans, it is as simple as those who observe happy hour at a beer joint on a backstreet of my old town. Or happy hour at a plush country club in the excesses of my town or happy hour at the golf course, compared to happy hour at a local pool hall.

            The progressives, socialists, liberals of our time, usually calling themselves democrats... will not be happy UNTIL Americans are all part of a giant prison system. Prisoners to a government subsidized house. Prisoner to a green government welfare check. Prisoners too absolute control from "big brother and big government."  This writer has been to China 3 times since it has re-opened after the Nixon visit. My first visit to communist China in 1976, everyone in the same costume... men and women. The same haircuts, men and women. Everyone mostly on bicycles, men and women. Four families shared an apartment, different shelves for the different families. All the parents were at work, children in government facilities (children palaces.) All young men were in the military and you could see them doing their calisthenics. On my morning walks, the populations, out of bed ready for work... eating rice with their chopsticks out of a large pot out in the middle of their housing developments. When you, my fellow Americans, look at your home owner associations, meals on wheels, plastic welfare cards at the grocery store. Licenses and permits necessary for money to do anything. You will realize just how rapidly the land of the free and home of the brave are moving toward commune copulation, controlled actions.

            When you see like minded-similarly dressed, similar speech individuals enjoying one another's company whether in a "beer joint", fast food emporium, cheap walk-up ball game, or even enjoying praising god in a store front "house of worship." Be glad that tribalism with all its mysterious attractions, its magical joyfulness still exists in the real spirit of Americano. When people lose the right to freely associate, families lose to right for a reunion, schoolyards no longer have patches of laughter. We have lost it all.

            We live in a world of warrior-ism. On Facebook pages the rich-pour learned-unlearned enjoy the well worn act of sharing one another. From the beginning, mankind has been a sociable animal. Mankind is the only animal that can blush, that can laugh. Man is the only animal that knows he is going to die. The grace of god has given us freedom. The senses are truly remarkable when in use. As we age, we lose our eyesight, our hearing, often our sense of touch. God left us lastly to lose our sense of smell and taste. "Taste and see that the lord is good." (Psalm 34:8) Plant flowers that you will not pick or smell, just know that your marvelous contribution in life is the members of your personality that you leave behind to those who wanted to be in your group. 

Automatons

 

#1566

June 17, 2013

Automatons

"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer." (Psalm 19:14)

            Millions of Americans have been jolted recently, learning that the IRS and other government agencies are checking everything about them. They thought they were living in a land of freedom (this writer has experienced police state brutality in such places as the Seychelle islands, Mauritius, China, where and when you were talking to someone they were constantly glancing around to see who was listening or watching). If citizens knew the peril they face in revealing their lives on Face book the government already know more about you, your bank account, your sins and silliness, than you do. Young people do not realize they are in a steady march to a Gulag. Even those who already live in government subsidized housing, even those totally dependant on welfare.

            Like the so called meteorologist on television, the news commentator, just READERS who have no comprehension of their subject matter just parroting something that a government worker has dictated. Much like Mr. Obama, clueless unless reading from a teleprompter.

            Americans have become Alta tones, just falling in line believing anything. They actually believe that chemotherapy and radiology will cure cancer, the very things that cause cancer, strange chemicals and radiation, both of which accumulate in the body. Cancer will not be cured because cancer is worth 1.2million dollars for every person with cancer. Many Americans actually believe that their children are being educated in a public school, when we rank 37th in the world in our knowledge of math and science. This is why home schooling grows seven times faster than public schooling. Parents want to get their loved children away from the decadence of public schooling... Some refuse to fall in line.

            This writer dropped his membership in AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science), several years ago, because I found that today's scientist are much more interested in government and foundation grants than in research to improve the life of their fellow man. Like many pastors, much more interested in their pastoral packet (vacation, retirement, car allowance, etc) than the souls of people who just might come to hear them and the fact that UNSAVED people, still go to hell.

            A verse of scripture that changed my life many years ago,  Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee (Psalm 84:5). The knowledge that my strength comes from God, has enabled me to live life as a 100% disabled veteran.

            In my lifetime, 82 years, the world has changed AND, it is truly remarkable how people and businesses become just automatons.

            How well I remember when any store, you receive personal service... A clerk taking care of you. How well I remember the first self service store I ever encountered... Pushing a shopping cart around, picking up things, checking out with a cashier. I thought, "anyone with baggy clothes can steal anything, and so it is". It really makes no difference anymore, because government welfare agencies are much more concerned about the shoppers than the seller... Furnishing a plastic card so the poorest do not have to worry about stealing AND, the twist beyond comprehension, sex and tabloid papers and magazines totally hiding the cash register so you cannot see what you are being charged. Business, from the banking house, to the court house, to the road house, has become a matter of greed. The hardworking, God fearing, tax paying citizen, attempting to live according to God's book, caught in the middle. The temptation of the automaton even as a child, "Everyone is doing it".

            In my youth, church house, and school house, we were taught not to gossip. As one man said to me long ago, "If you cannot prove what your saying to me about someone else, don't tell me". Starting with gossip "screenland" magazines, then moving to the radio with engaging personalities such as Hedda Hopper, late night TV talk shows, led by Johnny Carson, all media fell in line with gossip talk shows.

            The public, even responsible homes like automatons have fallen right in line with any sin or shameful activity coming around. Parents of young children even some who warm church house pews think it is fair to recognize same sex marriage, even the spending of $50 for the morning after pill by any young girl on a abortion activity... A pill to prevent inception -gestation. When will bible believing, real Christians, say enough is enough and throw the TV and other cesspools of satanic activity out of their house. It is not that we do not know better but Satan has his hold on us.

            Doctors -nursing -public health officials know better, yet they will walk on carpet in the corridors of hospitals. They know full well that every germ known to man is hiding in these carpets. Parents and grandparents, who love their children and grandchildren, will sit right there in a house wall to wall carpet , a precious child crawling around on that carpet, souls of shoes, bottoms of animals have brought every germ possible to that house now hiding in the carpet. Intelligent people will go to a doctors office, wanting to get well. Further exposing themselves to every germ known to man by licking their fingers, turning pages of old germ infested magazines, sitting on chairs where the skin of sick people have instilled germs. Most doctors, their staffs, are all too busy making money to clean their offices -hospitals, - clinics. The automaton theory of life, knowledge means little whether biological, political, or spiritual, just get in line and do what everyone else is doing.

 

Dr. T.R. Morris
Lt. Col USA Retired
Blind/Dictated
Visit my blog at http://carolinahedgehog.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.DrThomasMorris.com
* For release to Disability and religious publications*
(910)-251-6218
(910)-762-9467

(Dr. Morris is a totally blind 100% disabled service connected veteran, 8 around the world trips, passport stamped in 157 countries)

*If you would like to be removed from this mailing list, please reply to this email with the subject line "REMOVE" and the email address that you were sent this email at*

Out of Focus

#1565

June 17, 2013

"Out of Focus"

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
  In the light of His glory and grace."

           

            The people I have known all my life, family, my parents friends (and they knew everyone), never called me Doctor, always by my first name, the greatest compliment to me. Early one morning, Mrs. Blanche Davis, (a fellow student of my father in high school) called me at home (Thomas, I must see you in your office as soon as possible, I don't know what's wrong with me, but I'm in bad shape. My blood pressure is very high). When she arrived at the office, she said, "everything is so blurred, nothing in focus." This was at a time when styles of eye glasses had changed. The gold -rimless types have been replaced by a combination of gold and plastic, difficult to distinguish between men's and women's styles. It turns out, that she has put on her husbands glasses (Mr. Clee Davis) and evidently he was wearing hers. A simple problem for one truly remarkable wonderful couple. The problem, in my life time, the world and everything in it has gotten out of focus.

            In thinking of focus, most people think of a camera attempting to get a good photograph. I'm from the time of light meters, Traveling the world, (eight-round world trips, passport stamped in 157 countries) this mostly blind man carried five cameras, one with a internal light meter. Traveling associates would often make sure my camera was focused; and I have remarkable photographs.

            Doctors, lawyers, architects, even denominations, are organized within certain bounds of focus. It is beyond comprehension that professional groups, uncompromised church leaders, even concerned parents, would let the world -flesh -devil so drastically change their focus.

            Of course, we live in a world of change. In our all inclusive government, a government which has changed totally in my lifetime, Power which was limited to Newtons laws -power brokers, -economic and political power, changed our way of thinking in 1945 with the introduction to atomic power. Now, everyday of our life, we must consider the power of terrorism.

            Most fat -sassy people, overfed, (50% of the American population diabetic) forget that one of every six children in the world goes to bed hungry. We loose focus that a family of four tends to throw away $2,275 of food annually. There is nothing as barbaric as a buffet, fat people gorging themselves on food, plate after plate. There are people on my street, who actually order pizza delivered to them. This writer has never ordered food delivered to him in his life, not in a five star hotel. The world has made a big deal of the new pope, Father Cardinal, preparing his own food. Many of us, even those of us who are blind, has always prepared our own food (someone asked President Abraham Lincoln WHY he was polishing his own shoes, the down to earth focused President said, "I am the one wearing them".)

            Parents have lost focus with children. Can one even imagine a "bender day" in elementary school, boys coming to school dressed as girls, and girls dressed as boys. The gay agenda, homosexual parasites of this world (Obama and his ilk) must be happy in the knowledge that children and parents eyes are so easily dimmed and dumbed. And we are conflicted about physiologically troubled youth, the physiologist now the pastor.

            On every doctors desk (Doctors cannot remember everything), a P.D.R. (Physicians Desk Reference) some hypochondriacs have such. In the small print these books that get thicker every year, we find everything except the admonition (the body has a remarkable ability to heal itself). Stay focused on God's healing ability.

            When anyone says to you, I do not believe in God, bring the matter of rain to their ears. Gods magnificent plan for the universe, 3/4 of the Earth's surface covered in sea water, this water evaporates from the sea, condensates in the air, through magnetism, salt removed rain droplets, one billion 600 million gallons to cover an area of inch of rainfall,  dropped so lightly that the most tender plant is not bothered. Rain, plotting of blood, man cannot duplicate God's powerful focus.

            Recently, long -dry summer, rain finally came to the country side where I was reared. How well I remember the rejoicing of the farmers when rain finally came -crops growing inches over night. BUT that country church where I was reared, the pastor from his air conditioned fox hole, not when I was a child but now paved roads, "the ditches are full of water we will cancel prayer meeting".

            The greatest focus supernatural, beyond the comprehension of the unbeliever, a sinner, saved by grace born again, when the righteousness of Christ invades your very body and you no longer see trough your own eyes, but the righteous eyes of the holy spirit of Christ. Your entire focus is Christ, not the old you, because you are a new creation. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2 Corinthians 5:17.  Most loose focus of the rare jewel of salvation, even the spectators -pretenders who inhabit church houses.

            Surely Americans knew their government, their political system, was totally out of focus when they saw Monica Lewinsky testifying in the well of the U.S senate. Since the impeachment of that president, things have worsened.

            Surely, those who study their bible remember that God led three million slaves out of Egypt simply because he wanted to save them. But, in the wilderness, because of their unbelief they all died, except for a few, who like in the flood of Noah's day were saved (Noah, his wife, three sons and their wives saved in the great Deluge of 5000 B.C.) God's book has all the answers, believers need to stay focused.

Dr. T.R. Morris
Lt. Col USA Retired
Blind/Dictated
Visit my blog at http://carolinahedgehog.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.DrThomasMorris.com
* For release to Disability and religious publications*
(910)-251-6218
(910)-762-9467

(Dr. Morris is a totally blind 100% disabled service connected veteran, 8 around the world trips, passport stamped in 157 countries)

*If you would like to be removed from this mailing list, please reply to this email with the subject line "REMOVE" and the email address that you were sent this email at*

Civics Class

About The 5000 Year Leap
Author: W. Cleon Skousen
 
Discover the 28 fundamental beliefs of the Founding Fathers which they said must be understood and perpetuated by every people who desired peace, prosperity, and freedom.

These beliefs have made possible more progress in 200 years than was made previously in over 5,000 years.

The following is a brief overview of the principles found in The Five Thousand Year Leap, and one chapter is devotes to each of these 28 principles.
Principle 1 - The only reliable basis for sound government and just human relations is Natural Law.

Natural law is God's law. There are certain laws which govern the entire universe, and just as Thomas Jefferson said in the Declaration of Independence, there are laws which govern in the affairs of men which are "the laws of nature and of nature's God."

Principle 2 - A free people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong.

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." - Benjamin Franklin

Principle 3 - The most promising method of securing a virtuous people is to elect virtuous leaders.

"Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who .... will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man." - Samuel Adams

Principle 4 - Without religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained.
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.... And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion." - George Washington

Principle 5 - All things were created by God, therefore upon him all mankind are equally dependent, and to him they are equally responsible .
The American Founding Fathers considered the existence of the Creator as the most fundamental premise underlying all self-evident truth. They felt a person who boasted he or she was an atheist had just simply failed to apply his or her divine capacity for reason and observation.

Principle 6 - All mankind were created equal.
The Founders knew that in these three ways, all mankind are theoretically treated as:
1.      Equal before God.
2.      Equal before the law.
3.      Equal in their rights.

Principle 7 - The proper role of government is to protect equal rights, not provide equal things.
The Founders recognized that the people cannot delegate to their government any power except that which they have the lawful right to exercise themselves.

Principle 8 - Mankind are endowed by God with certain unalienable rights.
"Those rights, then, which God and nature have established, and are therefore called natural rights, such as are life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by the municipal [or state] laws to be inviolable. On the contrary, no human legislation has power to abridge or destroy them, unless the owner [of the right] shall himself commit some act that amounts to a forfeiture." - William Blackstone

Principle 9 - To protect human rights, God has revealed a code of divine law.
"The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are to be found only in the Holy Scriptures. These precepts, when revealed, are found by comparison to be really a part of the original law of nature, as they tend in all their consequences to man's felicity." - William Blackstone

Principle 10 - The God-given right to govern is vested in the sovereign authority of the whole people.

"The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of the consent of the people. The streams of national power ought to flow immediately from that pure, original fountain of all legislative authority." - Alexander Hamilton
Principle 11 - The majority of the people may alter or abolish a government which has become tyrannical.

"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes ... but when a long train of abuses and usurpations .... evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security." - Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence

Principle 12 - The United States of America shall be a republic.
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America 
And to the republic for which it stands...."

Principle 13 - A Constitution should protect the people from the frailties of their rulers.

"If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.... [But lacking these] you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself." - James Madison

Principle 14 - Life and liberty are secure only so long as the rights of property are secure .

John Locke reasoned that God gave the earth and everything in it to the whole human family as a gift. Therefore the land, the sea, the acorns in the forest, the deer feeding in the meadow belong to everyone "in common." However, the moment someone takes the trouble to change something from its original state of nature, that person has added his ingenuity or labor to make that change. Herein lies the secret to the origin of "property rights."

Principle 15 - The highest level of prosperity occurs when there is a free-market economy and a minimum of government regulations.
Prosperity depends upon a climate of wholesome stimulation with four basic freedoms in operation:
1.      The Freedom to try.
2.      The Freedom to buy.
3.      The Freedom to sell.
4.      The Freedom to fail.

Principle 16 - The government should be separated into three branches .
"I call you to witness that I was the first member of the Congress who ventured to come out in public, as I did in January 1776, in my Thoughts on Government ... in favor of a government with three branches and an independent judiciary. This pamphlet, you know, was very unpopular. No man appeared in public to support it but yourself." - John Adams

Principle 17 - A system of checks and balances should be adopted to prevent the abuse of power by the different branches of government.
"It will not be denied that power is of an encroaching nature and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it." - James Madison

Principle 18 - The unalienable rights of the people are most likely to be preserved if the principles of government are set forth in a written Constitution.
The structure of the American system is set forth in the Constitution of the United States and the only weaknesses which have appeared are those which were allowed to creep in despite the Constitution.

Principle 19 - Only limited and carefully defined powers should be delegated to government, all others being retained by the people.

The Tenth Amendment is the most widely violated provision of the bill of rights. If it had been respected and enforced America would be an amazingly different country than it is today. This amendment provides:

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Principle 20 - Efficiency and dispatch require that the government operate according to the will of the majority, but constitutional provisions must be made to protect the rights of the minority.

"Every man, by consenting with others to make one body politic under one government, puts himself under an obligation to every one of that society to submit to the determination of the majority, and to be concluded [bound] by it." - John Locke

Principle 21 - Strong local self-government is the keystone to preserving human freedom.

"The way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to every one exactly the functions he is competent [to perform best]. - Thomas Jefferson

Principle 22 - A free people should be governed by law and not by the whims of men.
"The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings, capable of laws, where there is no law there is no freedom. For liberty is to be free from restraint and violence of others, which cannot be where there is no law." - John Locke

Principle 23 - A free society cannot survive as a republic without a broad program of general education.

"They made an early provision by law that every town consisting of so many families should be always furnished with a grammar school. They made it a crime for such a town to be destitute of a grammar schoolmaster for a few months, and subjected it to a heavy penalty. So that the education of all ranks of people was made the care and expense of the public, in a manner that I believe has been unknown to any other people, ancient or modern. The consequences of these establishments we see and feel every day [written in 1765]. A native of America who cannot read and write is as rare ... as a comet or an earthquake." John Adams

Principle 24 - A free people will not survive unless they stay strong.
"To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace." - George Washington

Principle 25 - "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations -- entangling alliances with none."- Thomas Jefferson, given in his first inaugural address.

Principle 26 - The core unit which determines the strength of any society is the family; therefore the government should foster and protect its integrity.
"There is certainly no country in the world where the tie of marriage is more respected than in America , or where conjugal happiness is more highly or worthily appreciated." Alexis de Tocqueville

Principle 27 - The burden of debt is as destructive to human freedom as subjugation by conquest.

"We are bound to defray expenses [of the war] within our own time, and are unauthorized to burden posterity with them.... We shall all consider ourselves morally bound to pay them ourselves and consequently within the life [expectancy] of the majority." - Thomas Jefferson

Principle 28 - The United States has a manifest destiny to eventually become a glorious example of God's law under a restored Constitution that will inspire the entire human race.

The Founders sensed from the very beginning that they were on a divine mission. Their great disappointment was that it didn't all come to pass in their day, but they knew that someday it would. John Adams wrote: "I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence for the illumination of the ignorant, and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth."


Addition by Dr. Morris:

Right next to your copy of the Constitution, your Bible, should be a copy of these 28 principles. You should read them, your family should read them. I know of nothing that gives you more information about the history of your country, the condition of your country at present, and what will happen to your country if these 28 principles are forgotten.

Like listening to new flashes around the world. The Wrangle embarrassment in the people's house yesterday. The Obama, Pelosi, Maxine Waters, and other embarrassments which happen every day, the Hillary Clinton embarrassment as Wikileaks continues to pour out the weaknesses of American diplomacy around the world.

In North Carolina, the Michael Easley embarrassment, The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, Americans should have awakened to the slippery slope. Americans think that we are a punching clown, no matter what hits us we are always going to come up straight. We so desperately want everything to be alright.

God was not joking when He talked about sowing and reaping. The most fundamental facts of life, flora or fauna. They will sow wheat but reap thorns; they will wear themselves out but gain nothing. They will bear the shame of their harvest because of the LORD’s fierce anger.” (Jeremiah 12:13)

DX

In the parlance of shortwave radio and wireless cell communication throughout the world, distance is denoted as DX. In my lifetime, the world has become a very small place. In Spain, I examined replicas of the ships which brought Columbus and his crews to the New World in 1492. With today's trans-Atlantic and indeed the travel throughout the world, it is impossible to imagine the time involved and the trials involved in early travel. Think of the early settlers, with covered wagons and oxen, crossing the plains. I once said to a university senior who was driving for me, “I think we should stop somewhere and get a sandwich for lunch.” And then I said, “Can you imagine what it was like for the early settlers to have food provisions.” He said, “I'm sure they stopped at a McDonalds.” Can you just see a wagon train of covered wagons and oxen stopping at the big arches? This boy was serious. Our young people have no idea of what life was about even two hundred years ago.

The greatest distance in the world, and I say this with all sincerity and conviction, is the distance from the cross of Jesus Christ to the place in front of the cross, where most people stumble. Instead of getting to the cross, clinging to the cross, and showing everyday, in every way, their willingness to take up His cross and follow Him, they stumble over denominational beliefs – their desire to hold onto the world with one hand and grab at the cross with the other. Their total un-commitment to take God at His word and depend entirely on their TRUST in Him is sad.

Ezra Pound, the poet, said, “The worst thing in the world is for young men to go to war and die for their country, when they did not fully realize what they were fighting for.” Most church goers just want fire insurance. As one black church member told me, “I hang onto the church just in case there's something to it.” The Black Nationalist churches have promoted such a heresy – just a voodoo type belief system, good only for earthly deception. The soldiers of the cross, the Christian who has been born again, redeemed by the blood of the lamb, baptized in obedience, know that faith is action, based on belief, sustained by confidence. We know that we have confidence in the fact that we have moved from darkness into His marvelous light and are new creations in Him. There is nothing so pitiful as unsaved church goers. There is nothing so pathetic as a lost preacher in the pulpit – the blind trying to lead the blind.

The real Christian worships and depends on a God who can hold the oceans in His hand; who measures the height of Mount Everest with His fingers; who can dip His toes in the Mariana Trench (the deepest place in the Pacific Ocean); who has the very names of His trusting children written in the palms of His hands. When visiting Pisa, Italy, standing by the great Leaning Tower of Pisa – the baptistry of the great cathedral there – I could well imagine Galileo looking at the stars from his first telescope in 1609; or dropping out the cannon balls from the tower to measure their weight – distance correlation. How different today with the great Hubble Telescope in space, traveling 150 million miles a year and giving enough material for 6,000 scientific articles.

“Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: He calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that He is strong in power; not one faileth.” (Isaiah 40:26)

The starry host can never be measured by man. The distances are just too great. How pitiful it is that believers in God cannot comprehend that they have at their very fingertips, on their very lips, the faith that can empower them to draw on the reserves of the sovereignty of God. How pitiful it is that, instead of our depending on our faith in God, we resort to the very short distances of our faith and dependence on one another. How pitiful it is that we want God on our terms, not willing to submit to God's terms.

Last week an airliner overshot its destination by one hundred fifty miles. This should test the faith of every person boarding an airliner. Airlines so intent on looking in a baby's diaper or checking the feet of a wheelchair-bound elderly lady, yet with pilots in the cockpit and other personnel who do not realize what is going on, 30,000 feet in the air when any glitch in any airliner process would mean certain death to everyone aboard.

I stopped flying many years ago. After having traveled around the world eight times, I remember one around-the-world trip was forty-eight separate flights. I witnessed the spending and spreeing, drunken brawls of pilots and other airline personnel in hotel rooms and around hotel swimming pools. Do you think for one minute that all the illegal drugs sold in and around airports are purchased by the janitorial personnel who barely make enough money for life? Addictive drugs are purchased by people who make the big dollars such as airline pilots, doctors, lawyers, politicians, who have an excess of income.

A mosquito on a railroad track shouts at a locomotive bearing down the track, “I don't believe in you!” Poor, pitiful, humanity proclaiming that they do not have faith in God, that, “they do not believe in God.” Please tell me what they do believe in, that they could take the risk that they take in traveling on an airplane with doped, unconcerned pilots; traveling in an automobile on disastrous highways with doped, unconcerned drivers; wheeled into an operating room with doped poorly-trained technicians. Recently, at a VA hospital, I said to a physician in charge, “The technician working outside does not know what she is doing.” He did all the work she should have done over again, and said, “this place is full of people who do not know what they are doing.”

About two years, ago a young graduate of a Chicago university, after working for me for a few days, went home and put adhesive tape over his eyes, trying to determine how I have lived my life for nearly 50 years as a totally blind person. He said it did not last but a few hours, “I just could not put up with it and I don't know how you handle it.” I said, “I had to make up my mind a long time ago to 'walk by faith, not by sight' (2 Corinthians 5:7).” Now, more so than any other time in the history of the world, we need a faith not only to die by, but a faith to live for.

You voters have given matches to those you have elected to burn down the White House, the state house, the court house and even matches to burn down the school house, the church house and in many cases, your house. It is going to take much God-given faith to rebuild these institutions.

“Faith is the victory that overcomes the world.” John H. Yates