Web of Deception

Aging radio and television talk show host Larry King (77), recently interviewed Catholic Priest Michael Manning. In the interview, King (Jewish), asked Father Manning if he believed it is necessary to believe in Jesus Christ to go to heaven. As is the case with so many liberal spiritual imposters, he gave the universal restoration answer, “I have known many religious Rabbis, Buddhists, Hindus, who I believe will go to heaven.” Of course, this is God's business, all I can go by is the New Testament scripture which specifies that only the born-again believers in Jesus Christ will go to heaven: the way, the truth, the life (John 14:6).

My thought processes my entire life have been besieged with thoughts of Christian martyrs, the committed lives of Mennonites, Amish, Quakers, Catholic nuns and priests in their habits, and other saints of the Christian faith with whom I have been acquainted. It is beyond all comprehension that any human being capable of reading and understand God's Word, cannot become a believer in Jesus Christ. George Foreman, two-time world heavyweight boxing champion said, “when I became a Christian, I felt I had been raised from the dead.”

Recently, I heard Dr. Chauncey Crandall, a physician, supervising cardiologist at the Palm Beach Cardiovascular Clinic in Palm Beach, Florida, talk about his book Raising the Dead. He has lectured all around the world about the incident. Jeff Markin, auto-mechanic, in spite of their best efforts, died in the hospital emergency room. Dr. Crandall had been called in to see that everything possible had been done to keep this man alive, and was filling out the final report as the nurse was preparing the body for the morgue. As he left the room, God told him to go back and try once more to resuscitate this man. He went back and told the nurse to try to resuscitate this man again. Bewildered, the nurse said, “doctor, he is dead.” But to satisfy the doctor, the nurse began the resuscitation electronic procedure again, it had been forty-five minutes, and the patient came back to life. Today, the patient is alive, working in a local church, having been lead to Christ by Dr. Crandall. He went in to the blackness of hell, as one discarded, without hope.

Near death experiences, peeking into both heaven and hell have been experienced by many. With every Christian, you cannot give what you have, only what you are. We all have different versions of ourselves, understand the importance of putting forth the best version of yourself, demonstrating the importance of your life. Judas was chosen just as were the other 11, he saw the miracles, raising of the dead, healing of the sick, feeding of thousands. His feet were washed by our Blessed Lord, as were the others, yet for a bag of silver, he betrayed his Savior. Compare Judas and Peter, Judas went out and killed himself. Peter, warming himself at the enemy's fire, denied his Savior. He came back, repenting, became the “rock” of the church. An example for frail human beings everywhere. As an old man, he wrote that our faith is more precious than gold (1 Peter 1:7)

Why does it surprise us that evil men are caught in a web of deception, easily beguiled by Satan, loving selfish ambition. Filthy lucre, power-madness, more than anything else with which the human mind can be trapped, deceived. Colonel Kadafi, tyrannical, Islamic ruler for 40 years, now killing his people in the streets with his own military helicopters. The cheapness of life, not just with Muslims (Iraq, Iran, Egypt, etc.), Americans killing 3,352 babies every day through abortion. In order to become President, Lyndon Johnson involved in the assassination of President John Kennedy.

Since WWII, warfare has so cheapened lives, beneath the sand in the Middle East and North Africa, lives lost for the black gold (oil) which lies beneath the sand. Read your history, 100 years ago, the tyrants of the world, the power-brokers of the world, saw the increased value of oil. Russia's Stalin took over many of the oil fields. The money-kings of the world set up Hitler to straighten out Stalin. Along came WWII, with the mess of England, Japan, and America. Really, it has never ended, the power grab for oil, it is going on this very day.

2000 years ago, the madness for money, evident even in the life of Christ. The Sanhedrin, the Jewish Rabbis, were probably being paid off by the moneychangers in the temple. Jesus put on a tent of human flesh to dwell among us and show the decent way human beings should live. His own, killed Him on a cruel cross, and He said there, the eternal truth, “they do not know what they are doing.” He had told us to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:39).

Prisons are full of people; church house, school house, court house, even the White House are full of people who like to live in luxury off the hard work of others. In a marvelous land of opportunity, vacation time, retirement time has become more important than supplication time. An Islamic cleric said recently that the Islamic flag would eventually fly over the White House. Most Americans are concerned with retirement time being longer and more rewarding than their work time. Most government retirees, draw as much money in government retirement as they ever did in working for the government.

If only mortal man could understand his capability, his calling. Charles Lindbergh was brave enough to fly the Atlantic alone, on a small plane, and land in Paris in 1927. The man responsible for kidnapping Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow's only child, was brave enough to climb into his second story window, steal and kill their precious child. Many of us have been brave enough to fly over the great cities of the world, to see the ability of man, the domes of Rome, the neon frescoes of Hong Kong, the spherical minarets of Istanbul. When will we learn the Creator of life, even the life of man, instilled in him to be the benefactor of good, or yield to the deceptive web of evil.

Retirement

Perhaps France's greatest novelist, Victor Hugo, was right when he said, “no army can stop an idea whose time has come.” Socialist, liberal France is in the pangs of demonstrations and protesters, greatest since 1995, about raising the age for retirement from age 60 to age 62. As in Greece, where the people do not want to work either, most French always bragged about their early retirement when talking with them. My question was always, no matter who or where, why retire when you are perfectly able to work? Those who live the longest, those who are happiest, who contribute most to society, are those who continue to work long past retirement age.

Bankrupt America, looking everywhere for solving economic problems, will raise Americans retirement age to age 69. It was only with the advent of Social Security and other FDR sociological experimentation that the word “retirement” came into the lexicon. Until 1930, there was no such thing as retirement, people worked as long as they desired, the government did not interfere with their freedom about anything. Financially, some people have always been able to quit work early, work only when they want to. Like everything else Christian America, a matter of free will.

During WWII, many teachers both on the public school and college level came out of retirement to resume teaching, these were the greatest teachers I ever knew. When an old teacher or professor entered the room, you felt that a library was present. They had already forgotten more than most young teachers knew.

The greatest pastors and preachers in the world, kept busy in the pulpit until they were hauled away to die. The young ones might be able to talk faster, but old preachers and pastors were filled with knowledge and memory which the young ones could not approach. In professional schools, you always want age, not youth. I do not want a surgeon to cut on me, unless he is so old he can barely hold the scalpel, then I know he has been there before, he knows what he is doing. I'd rather have an old doctor with a stethoscope, then all the X-rays, MRIs and computer print-outs.

Government is responsible for the retirement craze, an enlistment sweetener for those filling military ranks, retirement, after 20 years service, with a “check for the rest of your life.” My first social function as a young army officer, a retirement party for a officer of field rank. He said, “just keep breathing, and you can retire too.” So it is with academia, so it is with civil service jobs. It is usually the second career, after military retirement, which is most rewarding, in the early years of civil service, government jobs were not that great. Now, government workers make an average of double that of the private sector. According to the Heritage Foundation, taxpayers would save $47 billion if federal workers were paid at the same rate as private sector employees.

A working man, a securities broker, who occasionally takes off an afternoon for golf, told me recently, “with the hundreds of golf courses in this area, it is almost impossible to get on one because of the early retirement of government workers, military sorts, preachers, teachers, bankers, and just about everyone who now retires when they are still capable of working.” He said, “I never knew there were so many retired preachers, don't they realize there are many souls out there, young and old, which they should be pursuing instead of a small, white ball. “ In the living of life, you store up a treasure trove of knowledge and memories, valuable beyond words to express, too often, because of the inflictions of disease, such knowledge goes to the grave too soon. But for those still in adequate health, such knowledge-experience should be available.

One wonderful lady I knew in my church, had worked in a large department store her entire life, she was one of their greatest business assets. It was time for her to retire, she did not particularly want to sit around home. The store owner said, “you keep coming to the store. You will get your retirement pay, plus. I want you there just to greet our customers. To give you expertise when it is needed. You are worth more in this business now, than ever before in your life.” At my own father's funeral, one of the several preachers said, “when he had his stroke and death, he was picking peaches off trees which he had planted.”

Now, as you get older, age takes its toll. If you have been resourceful and successful, you no longer have to meet schedules, routines, deadlines. Enjoy the luxury, afforded by age, but I believe everyone is better off to stay involved, to stay productive, to keep making contributions of time, talent, treasure to family, church, community. Hobbies are good, families are better, God's work is best, but it is only the busy mind that gives contentment.

A few years ago, I spoke at a large religious conference, one of the speakers said, “recently, I had the name taken off the face of my watch. Instead, 'the night cometh' (John 9:4)” The night cometh when our work time will be over.

The Importance of Keys

A piece of metal that controls the activity of most lives is a “key”. Historians do not know when locks and keys were first made, we know that such came to life in the Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilizations (at least 2,000 BC, about the time Abraham arrived in Cana, 1000 years after the great flood). Before then, our early ancestors, with few regulations, steeped in sin, had little regard for one another in any way. I once found a very old wood lock buried several feet in the ground. A historian sold me a ring of large brass keys, which he had found near the civil war bentonville battleground, just a few miles from my home. We know they were civil war vintage and were probably used to keep prisoners in the stockade.

Many hotels, many automobiles use electronic locking devices. Security systems are a part of life, since everyone and every thing is more insecure than ever.

One man was sitting in a bar of a very plush hotel, it was magnificent in every way, the type of thing he had always loved, but he could not understand the vice and vulgarity going on around him. Every so often, a totally naked person would walk through, there was pornographic literature all around and the telling of dirty jokes, hilarious laughter, cursing and swearing. He said to the waiter, “I died and I thought I was in heaven. But I'd just as soon be in hell.“ The waiter said, “you are in hell. I have already been here 10,000 years.” So it is, those who have not known the importance of locks and keys in their lives, locking some things out and having the key to many things.

I have not been to a funeral, never talked to a bereaved family, all believed that their dead loved one was in heaven. Even those who have never put a foot in a house of worship, who could not stand Christian people, all believed that heaven was their final destination. Christ talked more about hell than he did heaven, we know this, not one particle of sin will enter heaven...heaven is a sinless place.

The “normal people” do not realize what disabled people go through: blind, deaf, crippled. The alignment in which they must keep their mind, absolute order: the importance of routine, the importance of having everything in it's place, the importance of keys.

I have several employees, I have always kept a very fine automobile, the key to the vehicle must be kept in a certain place. Then, everyone knows where the key is located when I must be driven somewhere. Would you like to guess, over the year, how many times the key to my car has been put in their pocket, and I have been left with a “key-less car”? Would you like to guess how much money I have spent on key duplication: for vehicles, buildings, etc.? They simply do not have presence of mind to keep their thoughts in order. Most young people, even those who are not drugged out of their skulls, stay up late into the night watching slop (liquid garbage) on television, or have other things on their mind (those who have a brain), instead of on their job. Aggravation to me, at my expense, is not a concern to them. The word “concern” is a lost word in most vocabularies.

In this “me” generation, very few are concerned about others. A public school teacher told me that she started teaching at the age of 24, after college graduation. After 30 years at the age of 54 she retired from teaching with full retirement. Her retirement is over 100,000 a year because before retirement she was principal of the school. Now, after retirement, she is working part-time at another school as an associate principal. So, she gets a hefty paycheck there also. So in other words, after retirement she will draw more money than she ever made while working, if she lives to the expected age of 90-95. This nation, right now, owes 108 trillion dollars in entitlements and retirements to such government workers and others. 60% of the population draws a government check every month.

Over the years, when going to the doctor's office, in the reception room I always ask my driver two questions, most of the doctor's reception areas, in recent years have been turned into auditoriums, in this age of assembly line health care: doctor's running from one small room to another. The questions are as follows:

1.How many people are here?
2.Are not all of them old?

Always, since the onset of medicare and medicaid, the answer was the same...the place is full, and they are all old. They are entitled, they have nothing else to do with their lives, except sit in doctor's offices and, with the productive workforce (who pay taxes) shrinking every year, with the millions of young people who would work and pay taxes being aborted. Who will pay the interest, just on the national debt? Do you realize that future opportunity has been totally destroyed for your children's children's children? Do you realize that land of the free, and home of the brave has been replaced by land of enslavement and home of the weak, silly, lying, pretending, sissies.

The key to the lock was lost somewhere, in the wasteland of political correctness, gay agenda, liberated women, and academic meltdown. He has to try and find the key, turn the lock and rediscover the America my generation inherited.