Walking the Talk

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Korean war, a war which began in 1950. The peninsula of Korea had been ruled by Japan since 1910, at the end of WW2, with all the other provisions of the Japanese surrender, Korea was split at the 38th parallel with Russia controlling the northern part of the continent and the US controlling the southern part. There was supposed to be a vote combining the two entities, but it never happened, North Korea became communist, following the pattern of Russia, and South Korea became a republic. Those of us involved in the Korean war conflict, know the desolation of the entire peninsula.

Today, South Korea is one of the most prosperous areas of the world, Seoul, the capital, 12 million population, is the fourth most expensive city in the world. It is a city of skyscrapers, one of the largest Christian churches in the world. My only child, Dr. John Morris, and his family were SBC missionaries there for many years. They talked of the technology and prosperity of the country. One of my employees, stationed with the army there said,”you can hardly tell where one city starts and another begins.” Just across the 38th parallel, North Korea, poverty and desolation. Anywhere in the world that you have Christian influences, you have prosperity. Poverty always tags along with atheism, unbelief (Russia, China, East Germany, Balkins).

Aquino day in the Philippines (August 21st) marks the day that Senator Akino was assassinated in the Philippines, an outstanding Christian, he had opposed the Marcos regime and was forced to retreat to America. The Philippine people finally recognized the corruption of the Marcos's regime, leading to reestablishment of government integrity in the Philippines. His widow was later elected President and now his son is running for President. History is marked by people who refuse to accept the inevitable, the downfall of their government because of corruption.

Often, there is a false dichotomy, scientists believe in fact, the righteous believe in faith, we have been so dumbed down, that we cannot recognize the importance of combining the two. There are many scientists of faith, and many Christians who just want to bask in fact...like talk show hosts who try to talk and giggle at the same time. Like preachers, Osteen-Schuller, who think they can smile and joke their way through the trauma in which the world finds itself. Like the disciple John, we are in the world, but not of the world (John 17:14-16). We must show integrity, righteousness, sensitivity. Talk is cheap among fellow believers, but it is our walk as well as our talk, that influences unbelievers. Like St. Francis of Assisi, “you always preach, and use words if necessary.”

As a university student, it was rewarding to me to know that there are scientists, men of faith, believers. In a world of disbelief, antagonism towards Christians, it was a refreshing stability to see such great professors of science as Dr. J.T. Dobbins, Dr. Claiborne Jones, Dr. Lawrence McCloud (chemistry, zoology, pharmacology) walk into the church on Sunday morning. Some of the world's greatest scientists were believers in God (Galileo, Newton, Copernicus, Descartes, Faraday). The problem always has been to walk the talk, not to compromise, even though you know upfront that it will cost...popularity, friendship, family, promotions.

The thing that I will never understood is why Christian believers do not support one another. Most so love the world and the friendship of the world, don't we know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? (James 4:4) Most young men learn early in life that the meaner the guy, the more the girls love him, the more popular he is. Women love “cute”, mean, sorry men until they marry one. Then, they may wish they had the liked the decent guy, the studious, ambitious guy, the young man who had a Christian testimony, who walked his talk.

The world is so attractive, eating, drinking and making merry. Worldly people are so entertaining, bad language, crude jokes, little modesty. The world's philosophy: “get all you can out of life”, eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you may die, you are just an accident of nature, “pond scum”, “do others before they do you”. Atheist Carl Sagan, from Cosmos TV fame, said, “this is all there is, there is nothing else,” and for many, they have a certain degree of belief, but stumble before they get to the cross.

You can be sure that you will not be popular in your neighborhood, and even among your relatives, if you are a Christian. Your family loves the hedonistic one, the entertaining one. Study hard, behave yourself, be successful and you will learn how much you are appreciated by those who should appreciate you the most. Your friends, your neighbors, will build themselves up by cutting you down. Have you noticed how their attitude changes when you get a new car, a promotion?

I learned this early, thank God, after returning from the war, in a new, ambitious practice. My cousin, a wonderful school teacher, brought her mother, cousin Bett to me as a patient. I needed their business as well as the business of everyone else! But, after giving cousin Bett a careful examination, I told both that a new prescription would not improve things, I would not even charge for my services, spent much time giving advice, I remember telling her, as many patients, that many chemicals cause toxicity and that using charcoal capsules would rid her system of much toxicity and make her feel better. She, like most patients, just want an expensive magic pill from an expensive pharmacy. But, like most people, they wanted to spend some money...they went directly from my office to another doctor, who gave her pocketbook a good massage, changed nothing. The average patient thinks they have not had treatment unless the doctor writes a new prescription and they spend a large amount of money. They do not appreciate a Christian doctor giving them honest, Christian care and advice.

I have often asked this question: ”if all church members were just like me, what kind of church would my church be?” We could easily ask this question: “if all Christians/citizens, were just like me, what kind of country would my country be?” It is easy to talk patriotism, to find fault with the government, and there is much fault to be found. But, what have you done to improve things? How many letters have you written? Do you just vote party? Do you investigate each candidate? Do you pray before you go into the voting booth? Do you ask God to help you mark your ballot? Do you continue to support politicians from whom you would not buy a used car, a church which has lost it's influence in the community?

Who Do You Trust?

I was in a remote village in Thailand, there were three older people with me in a car, and a guide. We were there to see a famous Buddhist temple, as in most of the impoverished villages of the world, children everywhere...all begging, all in need. The three other tourists were much older than me, our guide being the youngest in our group. You are always told in these situations not to give “baksheesh” to anyone. These children's parents probably make a dollar or two a week, the children will never go to school, never work, if they find that by begging they can make enough money to live, as much as a working parent. The old man with us, a former concert pianist from San Francisco, with a complete lapse in his senses, took some candy from his pocket and gave it to two of the “cute” children. When he did, they launched on him, taking him down to the ground, going through all his pockets and almost killing him. He was so wounded that he had to be taken back to the car. You can describe these things forever, but few, unless they were there, will believe you. I gave this illustration recently in describing to someone why survival classes are should be taught in our schools and colleges. Don't we have enough sense to know that at any minute, any day, America can be thrown into a state of anarchy? People will be frantic to survive.

You have seen this in times of disaster: hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. Store shelves will be empty, no large delivery trucks on the highways, gas stations closed, as are all restaurants and healthcare facilities. The police, the fire fighters, doctors, nurses, all will be at their homes trying to protect their own families. I asked an elderly patient recently, “do you have your meds in a bag, so if you are forced to leave on short notice, you can have them with you? Do you have good walking shoes? There will be no gas for your car and no public transportation. Do you have some survival foods, and containers of drinking water that you can take with you?” Those who depend on the government to take care of them in good times, will surely depend on the government to take care of them in horrible times. But, those of us who have accepted responsibility for our lives, should act responsibly in preparing for a time of disaster. It will just take one nuclear explosion in America and the entire world will come to a standstill, no public transportation, planes, buses, trains, etc. No water coming out of any faucets.

The true test of Christianity will come when you have to protect your home and your meager supplies from hungry, desperate people. I lived through the great depression, there were desperate people then. 7 million Americans starved to death, that was a time when 90% of people lived on farm lands where some sparse food was available. Today, 90% of the population lives in cities, spoiled to fast food places.

One hundred years ago, 1910, life expectancy for my parents, born in that year, was 47. Most of my uncles and aunts died around the age of 50. There was no running water in the White House until 1900, in 1910 only 14% of American homes had running water, and much fewer had electric power. I have a kerosene lamp here in this room which gave me light when I studied as a child. I well remember our first electric lights, we were so happy to have that one light hanging down from the ceiling. In the United States of America there were only 144 miles of paved road, in 1910 there were only 8,000 automobiles. The average wage was 22 cents per hour, I remember working all day, as a child, to make one dollar. The average US worker made between $200 and $400 the entire year, an accountant could expect to earn $2000, a dentist $2500, an engineer could make around $5000. At least 95% of all births took place at home, and most healthcare practitioners, like lawyers, had no college education, just studied with an older practitioner. Now this was just 100 years ago and I still remember some of those doctors and lawyers, who made a good living, great contributions to their community, learning by doing, not depending on contacts at an ivy league school, nor the rewards of the good ol' boy network.

Technology has changed the world, but human nature has never changed. One race, one nation, the Jewish, are a history concerning God's providence, promises, punishment, for those who he had predestined. This nation was delivered from the unbearable slavery of Egypt, delivered toward the promised land, but, like today's church members, Gentiles, who have been redeemed, delivered, it takes just a short while, in the desert to long for the “flesh pots”, cucumbers, melons, of sinful Egypt. The promised land lies ahead but we simply do not believe God has the power to get us there.

The greatest power in all the world, is the power of God, made available to us (Ephesians 1:17-19). There is a condition with this power, we do not pray to a God unaware of our worship, fasting, giving...unaware of our devotion to him. If ye love me, keep my commandments (John 14:15) Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. (John 14:12) Those of us who are just playing church, who do we think we are fooling? This is the reason that Christians and the church are powerless.

When you get my age, you need people who you can trust. Think about it, no immediate family, who can you trust, whether going on a trip or going to the nursing home? Do you have a friend, family member, or even a lawyer, that you trust with your credit card, your check book? Someone has said that a friend is someone you can go to and ask for $100 and they go in their wallets and give it you without making a statement, asking a question. How many of us have such a friend? Someone has said that a Christian is someone who acts in a large, far away city at midnight, where no one knows him, the same way he acts at his home town at midday, where everyone knows him. Do we know many Christians? Your greatest expenses are additional costs added on to everything you buy because of thievery in the store from employees. Very few people will accumulate an estate any more because of high taxation. Local, state, and federal politicians who enjoy spending your money, not theirs. Do you know a politician, a pastor, a neighbor whom you can really trust? The midverse of the entire Bible states, trust in God and put no confidence in men (Psalm 118)

Over The Hump

During World War 2, “the hump” was referred to by pilots flying planes from India to China, supplying Chiang Kai-shek's forces with supplies, as the uncharted course over the Himalayas in Burma. Early 40s planes, propeller driven, WW2 vintage, few flight patterns or courses, unknowns concerning heights. Once, they had to ditch a grand piano being sent to Madam Chiang Kai-shek. The Generalissimo, and his fellow rulers of millions of coolies on the Chinese mainland were more interested in transporting the wealth of China to Formosa, than in fighting the hordes of Mao's followers.

When I was in Formosa, I was told that the caves of that country were full of Chinese art, they saved the art, but did not save the country from communism. Now, the aging Taiwan population, no longer concerned with Quemoy and Matsu questioned the hump of ambiguity which America shows about the water dividing the island nation from the mainland.

Exploitation of water, depths, at least to date, are more important to nations than heights, humps. News headlines in recent weeks have disclosed the problems of just one “oil leak”, millions of gallons from the punctured chasm 18,000 feet down. No one will ever know the exact barrels of oil leaked into the gulf of Mexico. The dangers to the estuaries, marine life, economy of the gulf coast area. With all the tall tales proffered by British Petroleum and the American government concerning the problem and the cure of the problem, none will compare with the statement by Carol Browner that 75% of the oil in the gulf has disappeared. Where did it disappear to? If this statement were coming from just any person, it might be laughable, but this woman-lawyer is the director of the White House Office of Energy and Global Climate Change, former administrator of the EPA. In the administration of this Marxist, Sunni Muslim President, her attachment to world socialist groups, listed as one of 14 leaders of a International Socialist's commission, and the president's global warming czar.

Much more scary than socialist Carol Browner, or even the Gulf Oil fiasco, the planning subject, familiar in most communities as “smart growth”, which all politicians, local, state and federal recognize as Agenda 21. Agenda 21 is a program run by the United Nations related to “sustainable development”, it was the first summit to discuss global warming related issues. It lays out a comprehensive blueprint of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the UN, governments, and major groups in every area in which humans directly affect the environment. In this program, every “puddle” of water in the world is under UN control...all gulfs, harbors, estuaries, even the pond on your farm or front yard. The New World Order, the globalists, are now in charge of every speck of the planet: water, land, trees, animal life. A threat to our freedom, an amalgamation of socialism, this extreme environmentalism enslaves humanity.

The American physician-missionary Dr. Jim Elliot, killed in Ecuador trying to reach the Auca Indians with the Gospel said, “wherever you are, be completely there.” In the scurry and hurry of life around us, just trying to make a living, are we always aware of what is going on? 50 years ago, I doubt if you could find a Muslim family in North Carolina, in all my years selling books door to door, I never encountered one. Ramadan, will begin August 11th, this is the time that Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, and sexual activity during daylight hours. Recently, to accommodate their faith group in just 3 counties: Wake, Orange, Durham, they rented Dorton arena at the NC State fairgrounds in Raleigh.

From 1799 to 1892, even the US Supreme Court declared this a Christian nation, in 100 years, we have seen this “Christian nation” dissolve into a diversity of humanistic diplomacy...just trying to satisfy the whims of everyone. Much like the children of Israel, leaving the slavery of Egypt, divine deliverance through the Red Sea, now church members, just wandering around in the desert of indifference, not really believing that the promised land lies ahead. Like the world, being so politically correct, afraid to stand with Arizona in keeping out illegal people, tolerating every satanic act and ready to swallow hook, line and sinker anything the world has to offer. There are three reasons, if no others, why the Christian should defend, and give faith and hope in God, the greatest, the logical reason why a human should believe in a supreme being, the second is the design of creations, the third is the morality of the creator and the creation. Could anyone improve on the design of a rose, the laughter of a child, the morals which even the natural man considers important. Tribes that have never come into contact with God, believes in the sanctity of marriage, a man with a woman, the sacredness of property rights.

Some church members do not have the faith to believe in the resurrection of Christ, the virgin birth, they search for Noah's ark, are glad to find the axle of one of Pharaoh's chariots in the Red Sea, the columns Solomon installed where the children of Israel exited the Red Sea. The resurrection made a cataclysmic change in the disciple's lives. Imagine the disciple Thomas walking across the Himalayas to India, Mark killed in Egypt, Bartholomew in Armenia, Luke in Greece, Peter and Paul in Rome, all martyrs of the faith, all lives cataclysmic transformations because of grace through faith in Jesus.

Jesus Christ does not need lukewarm cowards to carry his cross. Einstein said, “the most believable thing about the universe is that it is believable.” Faith is a verb, action based on belief, sustained by confidence. If Christians were confident in their faith, confident in their country, confident in the heights and depths to which soldiers of the cross have clung, in preserving this time in history for them, most “isms” would be “was-ms” (Communism, Socialism, Islam).

Heart Trouble

The three big ones, the leading causes of death in America each year: heart attack, cancer, and stroke. More die from heart trouble than anything else, 616,000 last year. When you consider the amount of work this one muscle does each day of your life, pumping much blood through 2,000 miles of vessels, the most intricate bio-electronic system one can imagine, you can easily understand why the heart just gives out, and the first thing anyone does to determine your death is to determine blood pressure.

One of the world's greatest books, Charles Dickens' Tales of Two Cities, written in 1859, the same year as Darwin's Origin of Species, the book written about London and Paris during the time of the French Revolution. To show how recent the book, my great grandparents were children at that time, and the Civil war was about to begin. The book starts out, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.” (We could easily say the same thing about this time in history.) A little known London lawyer represented a young man in a French prison dungeon, in order to save his client, whom he considered worth saving, they exchanged clothes, the lawyer took the prisoner's place in the dungeon, and the next day went to the guillotine. The prisoner went free. Here we have the famous words from the lawyer, “it is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”

Many times in my life, thinking of the death of a younger friend or even a person who I do not know, with family and children who need him. I have thought, “if only I could replace him, I had much rather die myself than see one of my grandsons go to an early grave.” After all, totally blind, having lived most of life with it's many challenges, there is, and I firmly believe this, a much better place for me. Grief is not for the death of an aged person, one who has lived a long life, one who is worn out. Grief in death is for the young, particularly a father or mother of children.

It was during WW2, I was just a child, my war was the Korean war, my grandfather was on the County Selective Service Committee, those responsible for giving deferments, and investigating the circumstances of those drafted for service in the war. A county which gave much in the selective service processes during WW2: Colonel John Langston of the Presidential Appeals Board, and General Kenneth C. Royall, the last Secretary of War...both from Wayne County, NC. One outstanding gentleman in the county went before the board, and asked that he be sent to the war instead of his son. I think I can remember the exact quote of my grandfather, the man, Mr. Aycock, “I was in WW1, and I know how to survive. My son would have to be trained in all the things, which I already know. Please let me go instead of him, I don't believe his mother could survive losing him.”

This week, the world observed the 65th recognition of the atrocity of Hiroshima. 140,000 people killed at one time, with one bomb...most just vaporized, men, women, children. America is engaged in it's longest war, the war in Afghanistan, I said on the radio the first day of that war, when flags were waiving, the country had come together in an attitude of retaliation, “these folks in Washington have never been to Afghanistan, have never seen the Hindu Kush. I am not a Rudyard Kipling, cannot write about these exotic places, but I have been there several times.” Every country who has tried to change that place: Britain, Russia, etc. have been thrown out. We cannot even imagine the horror story of these countries. America has more war casualties each month, after 8 years. But, on top of our casualties, think of what this warfare is doing to the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan, with a 2,000 mile border between them. Now, in a few days, with a 900 mile border, Iran. Even thirty years ago, I witnessed people on these borders carrying large bags of their belongings on their shoulders...cruel, harsh cold weather, barefoot children. From Banyan (I saw the great statues in the mountainside before they were destroyed) to Kabul, I never saw anything but people riding donkeys and living in huts. Drones dropping bombs on people will change nothing, except make them poorer and angrier. I have been in the Khyber pass several times, still as 2,000 years ago, camel trains coming through.

I have, here in this room where I am dictating this, a cast-iron fireplace cooking pot used by my ancestors, some of the first colonists to land on American shores. I own the survey map of the first farm at Morristown, New Jersey, drawn and signed (1766) by one of the first surveyors, Adonijah Peacock (blacksmith, surveyor, killed in 1777 drying out gunpowder which he had manufactured and which General Washington had refused). Our ancestors came to America seeking freedom...freedom to worship, freedom of every type of opportunity, freedom to educate their children, freedom from the exploitation of royalty and their appointed bureaucrats.

Our founding fathers, in spite of the rewriting of history by liberal, political academics, went to church carrying their Bibles and their muskets. They went west, conquering this great nation carrying their Bibles, their muskets, and Blackstone's law book. They actually believed that they could survive in a nation without military services. The military was forced on them because of pirates, the early colonies did not have jails. This was to be a land of opportunity and responsibility. Just think of how things have changed in just two hundred and thirty years, opportunity squashed by regulation of every sort. The largest prison population (2.3 million) of any nation, including even the totalitarian communist countries. A nation which took pride in church-established universities, colleges, hospitals, facilities for the orphans and disabled, now taken over by a collectivist controlled experiment in socialism. Freedom to worship has been replaced by freedom from worship, holy days becoming holidays, playing church like playing games in civic clubs, steeples on country clubs and morgues.

But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. (1 Corinthians 15:13-14) Therefore, my beloved brethren be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:58 )

Walking the Tight Rope

As poor as we were, my parents always made sure we went to the state fair each year in Raleigh. We knew ahead of time that we didn't have any money to spend on junk, my father always purchased tickets for the grand stand shows, afternoon and evening. Afternoon was harness racing which he enjoyed, the night performances were always spectacular. The ones I remembered the most were the high-wire acts, walking on wires, high in the air, swinging from one to the other.

Years later, while I still had a little eye sight, I went to the great circus in Moscow. The high-wire performances there were as exciting as in Raleigh. The only time I ever saw a Russian smile was at the circus. I have often said that the hard life of the communists could be compared to the hard life of poor Americans, the difference, in America the poor are responsible for their own welfare, in Russia the state is responsible for your care. Either place, regardless of where you find the poor in the world, life is hard. But, none of us were promised a life of ease. Even Christ told us that many would always be poor. Dante said, “there is a particularly hot place in hell for those who choose to not be involved in a moral crisis.” Those who want to remain neutral, unconcerned, indifferent.

The greatest high-wire and trapeze artists in the world are politicians...who should be surefooted, aware of gravity, not distracted or trying to distract. Do you think they actually know anything about your problems? Latest polls shows 30% of Americans have no savings at all. 68 US Senators are millionaires, Kohl being the richest of all at $214 million, 30% of all Congresspersons are millionaires. Adding insult to injury during this double-dip recession, when most Americans are just trying to survive, Ms. Obama and an entourage of friends and government workers went on an extravagant trip to Spain, at a cost of $2,500 per night (Villa Padierna) with her zest for the best. Of course, for a woman who made $315,000 at her last political job, whose husband made $5.5 million last year, the expense of this royalty seems like peanuts to liberals.

Remember in November, just as the gay judge ruling in California regarding same sex marriage. Just as Representative Wrangle, who writes tax laws for other people to follow. Just as Representative Maxine Waters, who has never seen a corrupt politician she did not like. Just as Al Gore, who still dreams of social security lock boxes, midnight basketball, and even making millions on carbon dioxide, the time has come for realistic evaluation, before the entire country, tripping to the left, falls of the high wire.

Grantland Rice, many of us remember this great sportswriter who died in 1954, said “it is not whether you won or lost, but how you played the game.” The entire matter of game playing, business, politics or whatever, is a matter of integrity. We hunger and thirst for people of integrity. Honesty and integrity are the building blocks of life.

This past week, in an effort to distract the attention of the naive from the budget problems, the two most corrupt politicians in this area: the Mayor of the City of Wilmington, and the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners for New Hanover county went into a supposed weight loss fiasco trying to distract the tax payers from the indifference of cutting and slicing fat from their budgets. Who cares how fat these two politicians are? We all would be overweight if we could live as well as they do. As another indecent politician, Mr. Bobby Greer has said, “living in paradise.” It is paradise for those who think the public is their pawns, to be moved around, and squeezed for every nickle possible.

I speak as a totally blind, 100% disabled, service connected, for 50 years, medical officer veteran, like the others, largest minority (20%), disabled, who do not use the jails, parks, bicycle paths, public buildings of the community, we just want to survive. In the great depression, 7 million people starved, and at that time, 90% of people lived on farms, whereas today 90% live in cities. My family needed our beautiful cow, but she had to be sold in order to pay taxes. We could not feed her anyways, except for cottonseed. I lived through it. There were no contests for weight loss, people were glad to eat anything edible. God willing, the time will come for some of these corrupt politicians to know what hunger, sacrifice, cutting and integrity are all about.

People do what they do because they believe what they believe. Crooked politicians believe they can distract the public and get by with anything. Character determines destination, and their character will trip them and throw them from the wire, this is their destiny, now and in eternity.

Lost The Key

We have lost the key to trustworthiness, common sense. Have you noticed that people do not have the brightness and personality that they did at one time. Teachers have told me that children no longer have a brightness in the eye, quickness in the step, they act almost as zombies. They are too wrapped up in television, inside video games, the computer. We know that IQ has dropped in recent years, there are so many abstractions, one war after another, one economic recession after another. Plausible didactic contraction of the intellect, easily twisted, manipulated, sinking in a sea of mediocrity, and because it is politically incorrect, most are unwilling to swim away.

The hardness of a diamond is exact no matter where you find it in the universe or on this planet. So it is with any element, the atomic weight of any element is the same regardless of where you find it in the universe. The mathematics and physics is the same, Chinese physics uses the same mathematics as French calculation, pi is still 22/7 whether used by a Asian student or an extraterrestrial from outer space.

The great philosopher Dr. Mortimer Alder (1902 – 2001) said he was a pagan before he wrote his book in 1980, How to Think About God. By 1984 he was a believer and baptized in to the Episcopal church, he said, “the mysteries were incomprehensible. What's the point of revelation if we could figure it out ourselves?” He later became a Catholic, you note that his was not a heart conversion, but an intellectual conversion, he spoke nothing of repentance or his faith in the grace of God. Like so many, he was looking for a key.

God cannot be contradicted nor deceived, in Christian apologetics (a system of giving reasons for your Christian belief) be prepared to give reasons for the hope within you (1 Peter 3:15). Churches are full of members who know nothing about what they are supposed to believe, so it is with the denominations, so it is with various religions. I can think of nothing more pitiful than associating Christ with Buddha and Muhammad. Buddha and Muhammad were sinners, they could not save themselves. How many Christians do you know who believe in karma and yoga? How many Christians do you know who allow their children to read Harry Potter? Witchcraft is the fastest growing religion among college students.

We cannot mix God with the world, theoretical and the practical, physical and spiritual, the nature of the lion will not change. Supernatural God will change people, people learn to act in a supernatural way, learn to pray, learn to live in a “shadowland” of mysticism and materialism. We eat food which we can handle and see, but we breathe a prayer to God, whom we do not see. We've lost the key to many things, particularly the division, the absolutes of right and wrong.

I was in Rwanda, the native guide driving the vehicle said to me, “tell me about the God that is worshiped in your part of the world.” This hit me like a load of bricks. Here is a man with a soul, longing for the security for which all souls yearn. The western world is full of people who hear the plan of salvation over and over. It either means nothing to them, or they just want to continue in their sins. Even though, every human being has innate need, the curiosity, the knowledge that there is more than just this life, and yet, once The Greatest Story Ever Told (Fulton Auwsler) has been made clear, then it is up to “hearer” to either accept or deny “so great salvation”.

I said to him, “I believe in a divine spirit, never beginning, never ending, who made the universe. From the dust of the earth, He made man and woman. He gave them free will and the very first couple on earth disobeyed Him, exercising their free will, and everyone since has lived in sin. About 6000 years after He created them, because of their sin, He killed all of them except for one family, and a boatload of animals He chose to preserve. Again, about 4000 years later, they had evidently learned nothing, still in sin...but since man has the innate desire to worship something, they were making for themselves false idols, and from this idol worship he selected one man, Abraham, who started a whole new nation of people, and we have a Bible which mostly concerns that nation. Again, the people mired in sin, not keeping the laws of God, so God put His wrath on His only Son to save mankind from their sins. The only thing asked of people since the death and resurrection of His only Son, is just to believe in Him, to become new creatures, living as the example which God set while He lived on Earth. We have a book, the Bible, the instruction book, and answer book for every problem of life, and all we have to do is trust this great God of the universe as you described Him. From the very beginning, man has been a rebel, choosing sin rather than goodness, darkness rather than light, this is the reason for the troubles of the world. Most people in the world consider God's gift of eternal life too good to be true.”

As has happened in places of worship, tent revivals, large Crusades, when the story is presented in it's simplicity, without the intricacies of theology involved, you never know whether anyone accepts the greatest key of trustworthiness which has determined the history of the world. Not one promise of God has ever been broken, yet we refuse to trust, not one prophecy from the beginning of time has not been fulfilled, yet we refuse to trust. It makes no difference about education, wealth, or any other material matter. We cannot bring our trustworthiness to the level of spiritual belief. Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thing iniquities; who healeth all they disease; (Psalm 103:1-3)

Finding A Pulse

One of the greatest learning experiences during my eight years of university preparation to become an army medical officer where I lost my eyesight, was the work I did while carrying a full student's load, trying to get through school. I sold books each summer door to door, always had a night job so I could go to class during the day, and for a long time, working at a shoe store on Saturdays.

In the shoe store, there was an x-ray machine (shoe-fitting fluoroscopes) in which one could stand, looking through an apparatus and see how your shoes fit your feet. Now, I was not an electronics engineer, physicist, or nuclear expert, but I had a student's sense of learning and discovery, from the very beginning, I knew there was something wrong with this sales promotion machine. In radiology, you have high-energy electronic particles traveling in rapid motion in a beam. I know that in a dentist's office and other healthcare facilities where radiology is used, for instance, getting x-ray of your teeth or lungs, assistants get behind a barrier and you are covered with a shield.

One girl working in the store, “wearing her apron high” (pregnant), would go over and put her feet in the machine, evidently to watch her toes. I said to her, “don't you think this electronic 'stupidity' has an effect on your baby?” She acted shocked, but when I explained to her, how electronic beams bend their velocity and ferocity, I never saw her use it again. I got the address off the machine, the corporation who had manufactured it, and I wrote a letter to the president of the company challenging him to send to me the information and statistics before patent approval. I never received response, but I noticed the machine disappeared from the shoe store, as I believe it did from all shoe stores, and I understand that by the 1960s they were prohibited because of related health problems. Like asbestos, tobacco, aspartame, and many other things, many scientists and government regulators, even the patent office, seem to have a blind spots. Science has been compromised by government grants and corporate largess.

I try to stay out of hospitals, there is a definite reason why hospitals and cemeteries are so close together. My VA doctor advised that I get surgery at the local hospital because I would need extended care. I knew the New Hanover County hospital was well known for staph infections. The Center for Disease Control estimated that the number of staph infections in hospitals doubled nationwide from approximately 127,000 in 1999 to 278,000 in 2005. You may have already guessed it, during my prostate cancer surgery, I became staph infected, later returned to my house that way and had to re-enter the hospital as an emergency. The staph infection almost killed me.

One night, this blind man eased out of bed, I wanted to find out what these hospital rooms were like in this hospital, since I was unfamiliar with the hospital. Feeling around, remember I am blind, I found there were overstuffed chairs in the room, draperies at the windows, even an old wardrobe for the storing of clothes. I thought I remembered carpeting in the hall when I was moved from one room to another. Can you imagine such furnishings in a hospital, harboring every form of microbiology...bacteria, germs just waiting to attack? Now, even if I were not paying federal taxes to support Hill-Burton federal tax funds, such as to build this, and most hospitals, I was paying county taxes to supplement the hospital, and certainly I paid a large hospital bill as a patient. I came to the hospital for treatment, not execution; to get better, not worse.

Evidently, most doctors and hospital administrators were asleep in school, and every public health official, who inspects hospitals, should have observed the same thing this blind doctor observed. Why should a sick person go to a hospital to get sicker? Does it not make sense that cleanliness, sanitation should be number one priority in a hospital. Even hospital personnel should wash hands in between patients. I talked with an administrator with the hospital and when he brought my concerns before the politically appointed hospital board, he was let go.

Expenditures in health care surpassed $2.3 trillion in 2008, more than two times that spent in 1990, and three times that spent in 1980. If you think care is costly, callous and careless now, just wait for Obama care. The socialized healthcare promoted by Democrats, will be a disaster. The fastest growing population in America, is those over 85 years of age, most healthcare dollars are spent on this group. This care will be strictly rationed, more patients will be on medicare and medicaid, employers will pay the fine of $2000 rather than the the $13000 cost per each employee.

As with buying shoes, many problems are brought on by ourselves, boil your municipal water before you drink it, try to get rid of the chemicals. The fluoride in drinking water has nothing to do with dental care, but according to doctor Russel Blaylock, famed neurologist, will increase your chances for cancer. Hitler learned to soften the brains of people with fluoride and chloride in the water system, which would cause them not to care about doing stupid things. Do you notice people walking out into traffic, young people acting like they don't care about anything, not even appearance? Some girls look like they have fallen head first into a tackle box, piercings, tattoos. Why would adults with an IQ above room temperature put chemicals, drugs, into their body, by any of the ways they do it, when intelligence would tell them it is slow suicide? Thank God, I remember girls looking feminine, wanting to look good, not bad; their brains not being rotted by fluorides, fructose (corn syrup, fruit sugars), artificial sweeteners, squalene from vaccines (adjuvant and controversial component used with anthrax vaccines leading to “gulf war syndrome”, component found in 'shark liver oil').

Have Americans awakened to what is going on in this country? Do they realize that the Tuesday vote in November will determine the destiny of this nation. A survey of doctors by the Physicians foundation found that nearly half the respondents would leave the medical business in the next three years if they had an alternative.

Have Americans awakened to the fact that more is going out to social security than is being paid in? When millions of baby-boomers are expecting to receive social security. When illegal persons from other countries are expecting to receive government entitlements. Over 200 physicians, members of the 16,000 member Christian Medical Association, have signed a letter protesting a Senate bill amendment that would use U.S. Military medical facilities as abortion clinics. Right at a time when we need more people paying into social security we are murdering our babies. Right at a time when we need children filling classrooms, we murder future students. Such a paradox that teacher support the Democrat party, a party that promotes the murder of babies. 52% of all black babies are murdered, aborted, while the black population at a rate of 95% support the Democrat party. Israel depends on the support of America, yet, 78% of Jews in America support the Democrat party, a party that does not support Israel. These paradoxes are astounding, coloring outside the lines of the constitution.

It must anger God to hear Christ, abortion, the Democrat party in the same sentence. We thought we had had enough of eugenics with Margaret Sanger and Hitler, calling black people and the disabled “weeds”, using the chemicals in water and food to slowly destroy rational behavior. Now, we find scanning at airports with the radiology involved, a federal database with all fingerprints and the scanning of the iris of all people. Most foods are wrapped in plastic, plastic drinking cups from which chemicals are leeched. Many of these chemicals cause sterilization...have you noted the lack of testosterone in many males.

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision (Psalm 2:4) Just imagine, some think they can manage this world without a creator. David wrote Psalm 2 around 1000 BC, every thing was on time, to the day, to the minute. History has been marked by men and women, who knew that God was beyond time. No beginning, no ending, completely in charge. Army flight surgeon Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin says he will not go to Afghanistan until President Obama releases his birth certificate. History is marked by one man doing what he believes is right. One man + God. God never appointed a committee, He always called on one person. He always called on one man: Noah, Abraham, Moses, Lincoln, Churchill, and today's men, never more important in the history of the world.

Nailing Jello to the Wall

Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, probably the most brilliant president in our history, Vice President under Adams, Governor of Virginia, President of the University of Virginia, writer of the Constitution said, “I fear for my country when I think of the justice of God.” Only a mentally incompetent would not fear for the future of this country in the year 2010. The President of the United States is a Sunni Muslim, dedicated Marxist, he promised to transform the country and a sufficient majority voted for him, thinking the transformation would improve things. We have never seen the world in worse condition. Trying to save the Democrat majority in Congress, you can expect him to attack Iran just before the November elections. The dots are lined up, everything is ready for World War 3. Joint Chief of Staff Admiral Mullen admitted to NBC news that military options are on the table against Iran.

World conflict could not happen at a worse time, winless wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Floods in Pakistan, droughts sweeping Russia, heat so vicious in some areas in that some villages burn to the ground just from temperature heat (an area north of Moscow the size of Portugal). Magnetic activity on the earth's side of the sun, coronal activity producing aurora borealis, seldom seen so far south. Threats of world hunger from the destruction of the grain supply of Australia, never in history have locusts and mice been so destructive to the crops, predicted to decrease production by 35%.

We deserve the governments we get, all human suffering is not a result of natural catastrophe. I have traveled through Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, several times, once this fertile nation was the bread basket of Africa. Politics and the angry polices of Robert Mugabe has turned this country into a bleak wasteland. I saw beautiful homes, built by the British and Dutch agricultural pioneers, falling down, trees growing out of them. Plush golf courses that once attracted tourists are now grown up. This is what happens when a communist takes over...the producers are run off, native workers wait for a welfare check. I saw the same thing in Burma, trees growing out of once beautiful homes.

History is so clear, the Garden of Eden represents God's heart, guarded when the first family were expelled by fire. They procreated, probably each man had around 300 children, lived long, sinful lives. God had finally had enough, destroyed them all with the Great Flood (around 5000 BC), probably about 6 billion people, except for 8 souls, Noah, preacher of righteousness, who lived to 850 years of age, and his family. Seth, one of Noah's grandsons, taught Abraham, around 4,000 BC. Abraham, from a family of idol worshipers, first Jew, led by God 600 miles north to Canaan, then begins the marvelous history of the Jewish nation. The entire Old Testament and the Gospels, 700 years later, all preliminary to Paul's preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles (Romans to Philemon, messages to the church). Always, strong foundations, not trying to nail Jello to the wall.

In the history of the ancient world, 650,000 Jews were led captive to Babylon, this all a matter of the historical record from historians such as Herodotus and Josephus. 50,000 were allowed to return and rebuild Solomon's temple which was been built around 740 BC. The rebuilding was completed around 500 BC (this is the temple in which Jesus taught and walked). When these 50,000 returned to Jerusalem, a city in ruins, the temple was just a mess of rubble and garbage. These people found their world in catastrophe, they worshiped, gave offerings, one after another. If the spirit of God is in you, you are willing to give: time, talent, treasure. Only after you have lost something do you appreciate what you have lost, I speak as a totally blind man, most of you do not appreciate your eyesight.

Churches, the cause of Christ, growing rapidly in North Korea, China, Russia, and other totalitarian places, where they realize what they have lost. There were old people who remembered, from them as with Haggai and the rebuilding of the temple, foundations stones were laid and the buildings completed. Many American church-members are cognizant about the loss right inside their own church, the church totally invaded by pretenders. The fastest growing church movement in America is the home church, real Christians gathering together in member's homes to study, pray, and worship. They have seen enough playing church, drama and drums. The fastest growing education movement is the home school, parents who love their children, parents who train their children correctly at home, protect their innocence and natural desire to learn by teaching them at home, it works every time. My son, grandsons, never went to a public school. They are grounded in good study habits, good minds, good character, are all reputable university graduates. They lost nothing by their non-exposure to satanic influences. God tells me, and you, if you will listen, that his purpose for my life is more important that my pleasure in my life.

Art Linkletter, known to all older Americans, died in May of this year at age 98, he died a wealthy man without ever bowing to satanic influences. Linkletter like so many others, learned to live triumphantly in an imperfect world. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, hanging by the Nazis for his religious beliefs said, “we cannot destroy the community because we cannot adjust to the imperfections in it. The tares are among the wheat, God knows how to sort things out.”

Plumb Line

Those of us who have studied the ruins of Ancient Egypt, the great temples at Karnak, Abu Simbel, and even the great pyramid on the Giza plateau wonder how the ancients could be so mathematically precise. The Egyptologist at Giza, wanting to impress my guide and his American client, insisted that this blind man go inside the great pyramid even though it has been closed for many years to the public. Covering the 13 acres (the size of Solomon's temple), the 6 million tonnes of sandstone, each block weighing 40 to 60 tons, joined so exactly that a human hair cannot go between them, built at the exact midpoint of the Earth's total land surface. Like Napoleon who entered the pyramid in 1792, I was filled for the first time in my life with claustrophobia. The interior which would hold both the cathedrals of St. Paul in London and Notre Dame in Paris, it is so exact that mathematicians are still incapable of explanation. The north star looks directly into the uncapped apex. One item used in the construction of these ancient temples, the plumb line, a heavy-pointed object attached to a string or rope, used a vertical reference line. You can always be sure of gravity, gravitas, whether in a building or an individual.

It seems impossible now, that I was ever that young, but, starting at 18, I was on my own. Trying to get through 8 years of university professional education, I was selling books door-to-door during the summer months...the hardest work known to man. Covering Brunswick county, I was staying in Shallotte, NC. There were only two strangers in town, the highway patrolman and myself, we both stayed at the home of Ms. Huet. On the first Sunday morning, I went to the Methodist church, it has been 60 years, but I remember it as if it were yesterday. The pretending Methodist minister, still drunk from the night before, hanging on to the pulpit, securing himself from falling, talking about salt, that we as Christians are the “salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). He had a box of salt, and was talking about the “saving power of Christians and the Church”, I can well understand why the Methodist church is rapidly disappearing from view. With their gay agenda, promotion of abortion and every sin which so easy besets us. If all churches were Methodist, the church would have disappeared long ago. A Methodist bishop, in Goldsboro, NC said to me one time, “it is none of my business how Methodists live.” This is probably the plumb line of that denomination.

Churches are disappearing because they do not believe in anything, any more. The world has been invaded and conquered, and like the Stockholm syndrome, the church have fallen in love with the invaders. Instead of the church changing the world, the world has changed the church. I have been accused of not being optimistic, too pessimistic, too cynical. Like the South Carolina catholic priest who won a tremendous amount of money playing poker on television.... he said he learned to play poker while in the seminary. Another preacher said he learned to play championship pool while at Bible college. “If gold rusts, what do you expect iron to do?” If preachers of the Gospel, those who live from “storehouse giving”, do not have an interest in the souls of men, what can you expect from the rest of us? How does anyone remain optimistic when churches have been taken over by the world, the flesh, the devil. The government, local, state, and federal taken over by corruption. The businessman, the professional man, “doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc.” all seem to be interested in one thing: the almighty dollar.

If the doctor were interested in your health, he would warn you about fluoride in your water. Autism, and other neurological diseases brought on by vaccinations, keeping aspartame, MSGs (monosodium glutanates) in the prevention of Alzheimer's disease. Diabetes was a rare disease when I was in school, now about 50% of the population is diabetic, 27% of the population is obese. Captured by government money, government programs, the scientific community has become captive, slaves of political correctness. The plumb line of most lives, regardless of education, spirituality, politics is political correctness. In today's culture we believe that mankind is just a horizontal being, no need for the vertical ethos (honesty), pathos (emotion), logos (logic), Greek words describing human nature.

St. Augustine realized mankind's true plumb line, “our hearts are restless until we find rest in thee, Oh Lord.” The best way I know to describe the power available to every human being, each knows how to insert a plug into an electrical outlet, immediately you have power, light, noise, even temperature. The power sources of God is available to every man, even though unmerited. God holds Christ accountable for us, even our sins: past, present, and future. Most of us are unworthy vessels, whited sepulchres full of dead men's bones (Matthew 23:27).

There is a new heresy in the spiritual world, the heresy of the emerging church, people who do not believe in the divinity of Christ. Who believed that the God of the Old Testament is different from the God of the New Testament. It is bad enough to have our blessed Lord insulted, dissipated by bereaved, by non-believers, but to have the blessed Trinity trampled by the likes of Brian McLaren and his fellow preachers and authors defies comprehension.

You cannot fool anyone, any time, with the insincerity of love. One can always tell if a man is still in love with his wife. When he comes on the scene, she is the first thing his eyes see, even before his children, his parents, anyone else. If you are in love with your Savior, it will be shown and known. The severest unbeliever always recognizes hypocrisy, the unbeliever may not recognize anything else, but he recognizes hypocrisy...the one who does not have the gravity of conviction, whose plumb line leans. God gave His Son, His Son gave His Life, if the desire to give is not in you, time, talent, treasure, you can know that you are lost and still in your sins. Giving is the essence of Christianity, God is Boss, He insisted on giving you one day out of seven for rest, giving you a book to live by, giving you wealth and only asking a percentage in return, cheerfully given. If the spirit of God is in you, in your church, everyone will know it. Not just individuals, some church buildings are empty of the Spirit of God.

A friend left one of our local Baptist churches, where she had been a faithful, giving member. On returning to the city for a visit, as would be the custom with most people, she visited her former church, in order to freshen her memories there, and see her friends. While there, a woman she did not know walked up to her and said, “I am on the church Sunday school committee, and we would like for you to teach a class this coming year.” This woman did not know that she was no longer a member, knew nothing about her at all, was willing to enlist just anyone to teach impressionable children. This is the depravity, the lack of a plumb line to which some churches have fallen. Any teacher, before any Sunday school or any group, should be carefully studied. Are you willing to hire just any preacher, any one with a license, a degree, perhaps even a doctorate?

The First Baptist in Wilmington, NC hired a man as pastor simply because he had a doctorate...he had never pastored previously. So anxious to have stripes on the robe (robes worn by pastors with doctorates have stripes on the sleeves), one man paid one baptist college to give an honorary doctorate to the last pastor, who later left town with a girl about the age of his daughter. One of my friends gave him a new robe with the stripes before he left town. Earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, wars, and political fascism...God is talking to us, is anyone listening?

Christ said, “you are my disciples if you continue in My Word. (John 8:31)” The sower threw some seed on stony ground, some on fertile ground, it is only when you understand the sower, that you will understand the stony ground of today's church life, today's seminary failure, today's denomination's blights and blotches.

Alfred Tennyson said in “Crossing the Bar”: Sunset and evening star, and one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar, When I put out to sea!

Working Class

Pitiful the human being who does not know the honor of work. Our ancestor, the first man, Adam ruined it for everyone when, breaking God's law (he had an entire garden only one tree was forbidden) he ate the forbidden fruit, offered to him by his wife. God told him then that he must work, and man has been working ever since. There is honor in honest labor, and God, plus your fellow man, expects you to work if you are able to work.

We have always had the working class and the leisure class, there are those who feel they are too good to work, some who even feel that they should live off the work of others. The Apostle Paul tells us that if a man does not work, he should not eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10). The great Egyptian actor Omar Sheriff (Dr. Zhivago) said he loved acting, but his first love was horse racing. He said, “I love to own race horses, but the losers eat as much as the winners.”

My parents were the hardest working people anyone can imagine, both worked all the time, both came from very prominent, responsible families. My father's family, on both sides, were colonial settlers (Lucas and Morris). They knew the honor of work, responsibility, opportunity.

I walked into an art gallery in Tel-Aviv, Israel. Back then, I had a small amount of vision in the left eye. This was at least 50 years ago, but I still remember it as if yesterday, I would have purchased the painting ($5,000), if the Jewish art dealer had not been so rude. In hues of brown, it showed women winding grain (the act of throwing grain in the air, wind separating the husk from the grain). I had seen this work in many countries all over the world, and I well remembered my father, situated just right for the wind, winding grain on the farm. Today's spoiled, lazy young people have no idea about hard work and what hard work is all about. Most confuse celebrity with accomplishment, they want celebrity but do not want the hard work involved. They have an inordinate desire for honor, the extent of their ambition...not willing to pay the price in education, risk, training, hard-work involved.

Many think you cannot be wealthy and be a Christian (Christ-like), Joesph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, even Lazarus (brother of Mary and Martha, who Christ raised from the dead) were not poor men in their day (Abraham was one of the richest men in the world, think of the riches of Job, Solomon, King David). Some of the finest Christians I have ever known were quite wealthy, knew the joy of giving to God's work. If a man is right with his pocketbook, he is usually right. Some of the weakest sinners I have ever known were poor, and vice versa. Many marvelous Christians are poor, many wealthy people are evil.

There is no such thing as a cheap politician. Even a member of Congress who may serve only one term is due a lifetime's retirement. I have never known a politician, of either party, anywhere, to leave office poorer than when elected. It is easy to diagnose pride in other people, you must fight pride, achieve humility. We know who we are, we know if we are pretending, and we do not usually fool others: the bed is too short and the blanket is too narrow, something always sticks out. Presumption is a part of pride, often we want others to know who we are...roman collars, large crosses hanging around the neck. Many wives use husband's accomplishments, education, financial, as a badge. One lady introduced herself to me as “Mrs. Dr. Mitchell, my husband is a doctor.” These days, in a city like the one in which I live, almost anyone can place in their resume a doctorate. Pastors and preachers work hard to put the handle “Dr.” in front of their name, since “Rev.” has been so besmirched (Rev. Jackson, Rev. Sharpton, Rev. Farrakhan, Rev. Wright).

Think of what hard work has meant to this nation. A German-American mathematician, Charles Steinmetz, disabled by dwarfism and hunchback, came to America as a mathematician/engineer and fostered the development of alternating current, made the possible the advancement of the electric power industry mainly through the Otis Elevator Company. His motors allowed elevators to go to great heights, the sky-scrapers of the world, the great hotels of the world, places where thousands work, made possible by this one man and his remarkable mind. Most citizens of the world have never heard his name, his physical disabilities, and there were many, did not keep him from making a tremendous contribution to the world.

Thomas Edison, the Wizard of Menlo Park, inventor of the lightbulb, the motion picture camera, and holder of 1,093 other patents had only three months of official schooling, and was home-schooled by his mother (“My mother was the making of me”). Though hearing impaired, he founded 14 companies, including General Electric. The disabled always do the best they can with what they have...this the only work expected of us...but he does expect that. Don't tell me you are a Christian if you are lazy. Don't tell me you are saved if you are not conservative, if you pamper sorriness.

The Requiem played at Mozart's Funeral was written by Mozart, but was stolen by several in an effort to get the unfinished work completed. History is filled with those who have stolen the hard work of others. Our blessed Lord knew what it was all about. Judas, one of his disciples, stealing from the purse, but, as with the other eleven, Christ washed Judas' feet at the last supper. He truly showed workers how to forgive the imposters and the impotent.

Scales of Life

Credited with the invention of karaoke, I believe I have every one of his sing-along albums, Mitch Miller died last night at the age of 99. All the greats are dying, some having lived a very long life. Turning the dial on your radio, you will be shocked at some of the music you will hear: a cauldron of insanity, senseless lyrics, profane words, mystical beats.

Bring us back to the good old days, Tony Bennett - I Left My Heart in San Francisco, Dinah Shore's or the Four Ace's Three Coins in the Fountain, and those of us who have thrown a coin in Trevi Fountain always remember. Famed Patsy Cline with Crazy, Eddie Arnold's Don't take your love from me, Paul Anka's Lay your head on my shoulder, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of wonderful lyrics and melodies which became a part of our life...simply since we could associate with them.
Perhaps, this is the reason I don't understand rock n' roll and RnB so-called music, you'd probably have to be stoned out of your mind with drugs to appreciate it. Once in Africa, listening natives perform on hand-made drums, one of my fellow travelers a professor of music in Canada said, “just beating on cardboard box with a stick, with rhythm, is considered music.”

Living and life is very much a scale, a scale with a pointer. You spend your time going one direction or the other. Your value system either swings toward the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law (Galatians 5:22); or you may choose to swing in the other direction as shown by the seven deadly sins, and every sin begins with pride, anger, lust, laziness, greed, gluttony, and envy.

There was a time when most baptist churches grew by visitation, in this, you go into the community and visit those who are not associated with any church. Perhaps those with other means have shown an interest in your church. You take to them and their family, the good news of the Gospel. One of my friends, a deacon in one of the world's largest baptist churches went with another deacon to visit the home of an influential man who had visited their church, probably because a great preacher, and well known orator, had spoken there. The man had filled out a visitor's card, and had expressed the desire for someone to visit him. In these days of political correctness and uncertainty about everything, even soul winners, are careful about intrusion. I tell every minister, every counselor, not to talk with a woman or child without another person being present. We all know the horror stories of ministers, counselors, or even doctors being accused (most of the time, falsely), it is a very foolish doctor, of any type, who does not have a nurse, or an assistant present at all times. This is the world in which we are living. One of the finest doctors I ever knew, in Johnson county, NC, was falsely accused by a young woman, a truly country doctor, he had left his office and gone home for the evening. The girl's father called him at home, and told him his daughter was very sick, would he go back to the office. My friend, a truly sympathetic country doctor, went back to his closed office, and examined the girl without an assistant being present. The girl accused him, his license was taken, he later killed himself, his family now lives dependent on others and in despair.

The two deacons drove up to this beautiful home early in the evening: colleens on the front, expensive cars parked to the side, outside lighting showing a large swimming people in which young people were having a good time. They could see through the front windows of the house: magnificent furnishings, a maid serving hors d'oeuvres to the man and his wife, as they sat with a drink. Everything about this picture was one of opulence, wealth, a paradise of life and living. The point of the scale had swung completely over to the plus side of their equation. One deacon said to the other, “tell me again the good news we are supposed to bring to this man.”

So often, “gobs” of government money, “trust” from family empires, the creme of success having risen to you, in spite of everything. Why do you need God, the Gospel of good news and salvation, the pointer of your scale is already completely over on the plus side. Not like Mother Teresa, lifting totally desolate people out of the trenches of Calcutta, or as in my lifetime, tenant farmers, mill-workers, people who can barely survive, the pointer on their life scales totally on the minus side of the equation. The poor and disenfranchised and much more eager to grab of the good news of salvation, the good news of security and assurance in this life and in the life to come. We forget that life is not just a horizontal experience, there is a vertical experience, and the gravity equation, the scale of gravitational pull can be totally reversed for us through the experience of redemption.

Hard to understand, but important to understand, the matter of “will”, we are given free will, the freedom to choose. In the prayer given by our blessed Lord to the disciples, we are instructed to pray “they will be done, on earth as in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-13). Through out life we weigh options, Satan always offers insidious choices. Happy is the man who learns to choose wisely, after weighing the options, many times forced to take the road “least traveled” (The Road Not Taken – Robert Frost).

When God forgives, he forgets, but he does not allow us to forget, if we forgot our sins, we would forget many other things. He does not allow us to forget the pit from which we were delivered, the shipwreck from which we were saved. His scale is perfect, his score keeping is accurate. We will never question his judgment, he honors his Word.

Mankind thinks himself smart, the creature brighter than the creator, we are told that a camera in a space satellite can read the letters on a golf ball thousands of miles away, on a golf course on earth. This does not compare to the all seeing eye of God, accurate on the fairness scale, accurate on the legal scale, accurate on the justice scale. To those who are playing church, to the pretenders, a message which should scare all of us: Before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity. (Psalm 98:9)

Jalapeno Factor

You will never remember just a “blah” person, any more than you will remember “bland” food. You remember a spicy personality, one full of inner heat, zeal, ambition, cheerfulness, that twitter which always reminds you of success...remembrance. Be known for something, even if it is for eccentricities, this writer is well-known for his eccentricities.

William Randolph Hearst was one's of the world's wealthest men, publisher and financier, he was a collector of fine art. There was a painting by a well known artist which he greatly desired, he told several galleries around the world to find it for him, price was no obstacle, “I want that painting”. Several called him and said they could not find it anywhere in the world, they had checked all the galleries, all the museums. Then, one day, the curator of a New York gallery called him at his California home. “I have found the painting!” Hearst, said “where is it?” The man said, “it is in your warehouse, you own it.” Eccentric Hearst also took credit for the sinking of the Maine in the Havana harbor. Prince of preachers, perhaps the world's greatest preacher since the apostle Paul, Charles Hayden Spurgeon speaking before a seminary graduating class said, “the most important thing for you to learn, is to learn to say 'no'. This is worth more than knowing Latin. It is important to say 'no' to overwork, to overeating, to the enticements of wealth and sin, to human foilties of sexual excursions, certainly pride.”

We are taught that to succeed we must be a “Yes” man. You will hear politicians tap-dancing around every political challenge. So afraid of offending someone, afraid to say “yes” afraid to say “no”.

Character determines destiny, a person of character has that inner heat of honesty, at the church house, courthouse, schoolhouse, or even at the White House. We see presidents and those who want to be president testing the political winds. You have a right to be you. There is something wrong with you if the holy spirit of Christ, in your life, does not determine you. The root of faith produces fruit of faith. Fear is the cataract of the mind, blurring everything you see or think. Courage erases fears, 90% of faith is just raw courage.

A chaplain in General Patton's army said, “in war, each man must determine within himself, that he, and he alone, determines the outcome of the battle.” Don't tell me you do not recognize the jalapeno factor, you recognize it in young people, not afraid to show their talents, enthusiastic about everything they do, unashamedly confident and competent, ready for the battles of life. There is that jalapeno factor, that burning inside, which gives sparkle to the eyes. The grip in the handshake, the smile of confidence on the lips, which is always the mark of excellence. These are the ones who stand head and shoulder above the rest of us. It takes courage with the first patient, it takes courage in trying to make the first sale. This is what Christ was a speaking of when he said “for God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7).

Character Flaws

I was sitting on my front porch of my beach house last week with a friend, he was looking out at the ocean and describing the beauty of the waves to me. All of sudden I said, “she's back”, he said, “what do you mean?” I said, “Since my house was built, the same dove has returned every year and reestablished her ownership of a nest, here in my house. She is a summer seasonal renter, even though I do not get any money from her. She always makes the same noise as she sits on her nest. The magnificent supernatural dove designed by our creator, 300 species of doves/pigeons, all having a innate response in their creation, like the arctic terns or the monarch butterflies, blessed with the ability to return, each year, to their place of refuge and safety. I said, “she only leaves her nest to go out for a snack or a drink of water.” Later, the cooing stopped and he said, “I see her up on the roof of the house next door.” Completely predictable, her genome/DNA established, she has not bothered with the cares and tares of the world.

One of my aunts would call me often about her health conditions, I had not been in her presence in years, knew nothing about her medications. Trying to give her care and encouragement, I would say, “do you still have any birds around your house? Are they still singing? You know, God cares for the birds, and he still cares for you (Matthew 6:26).“

We are told that 85% of the American population professes to believe in God. If this were true, this would be a different country...a population believing in the love, as well as the wrath of almighty God.

Most children want a relationship with their parents, most parents want a relationship with their children, and most children desire a relationship with one another. Parents and children can be reared, sitting around the same dining table, eating the same food, enjoying the company of one another, it is truly amazing how quickly this relationship can change. There are warts in personality, just as there are warts on the physical body. Personality traits not easily explainable, some little blister will begin to fester, not treated immediately, will grow into a tumor or cancer. Resentment over petty things can result in pitiful relationship, most will put on a front at a funeral, although often, a split family will have split seating even at such a service.

There is more harshness in family and churches than any other place, baptist churches have always multiplied by dividing. If families, churches, neighbors cannot get along on earth, what makes them think they will get along in heaven, and surely, everyone should have enough sense to know that unforgiving, disgruntled, sinful people will not enter heaven.

The creation-historian, Dr. John Morris said, “if we think a man-made machine is flawed, the human being is much more so, and the human being is God made.” The poet said, “there is some good in the worst of us, and some bad is the best of us.” The difference, the holy spirit of Christ should have removed the worst in us. We are his workmanship (Ephesians 2:10)

When children are told in the school, or the unbelieving home, that they come from pond scum (from the goo, to the zoo, to you), what more can you expect from them? I have said many times, it surprises me that most children turn out as well as they do, considering from where they come. It is not just a matter of DNA, but think of the decadence to which they have been exposed, by parents who came from the same, and did not know any better...hedonistic language, music, pornography in books and electronic, unashamed sexual activities...a complete lack of modesty on the part of both parents. Think of a child, living in a home with a single mother, as do almost 70% of all children, often, the mother entertaining a boyfriend, the boyfriend being abusive to the children, both male and female.

Over the years, I have had several women working for me who live under such a roof. Ill prepared to live alone, certainly not with children, lonely, wanting companionship which she did not get with the father of her children, willing to give herself to just any man, often for money. Never considering what such is doing to the psyche of her children, particularly if the boyfriend is abusive to the children. One woman told me she never wanted to see her mother again...as a child, she would come home from school, her mother inside her home, entertaining a stranger, telling her to go stay with a neighbor. She did not want to go to the neighbor's house, nor did the neighbors want her there. She felt she was an unwanted cast away. I told another, who, herself was living such a life, “you may think your children will not remember your activities...the boyfriends you are entertaining, their abuse.” Think of the two-year old boy who was killed recently by his mother's boyfriend, the three-year old girl beaten to death with an extension cord by her mother's boyfriend (Johnson County, NC). There is a very hot place in hell for the evil defilers of children.

Almost as evil is the vindictiveness of divorce, one parent trying to turn a child against the other. I have never met a perfect person, have knowledge of only one, our blessed Savior. His accusers lied about him, stripped him naked (the artists have been so modest in his pictures on the cross, but he was hung there naked), we all know the truth, and the truth is always the victim of any two sides. The procreation of a male and female, boasts the DNA of both parents, why defy god and man, laws and lust, by depriving a child of his ancestry and benevolence. Divorce and dilemma has calloused most lives, a child of a previous marriage unwelcome in a home by present spouse and children.

I remember the day, my mother brought us from school, her only brother, my uncle, had returned from pacific combat in WW2. On the way home from the pacific coast he had stopped and gathered the wife and daughter he had espoused before he left the west coast. His family had never seen his wife and child, one of the most beautiful children I had ever seen, like a doll. But, his jealous sisters did not like his wife, she is not what they would have picked. Her loving parents drove all the way from the west coast to pick she and the child up and take them back to a loving home. He married again, had other children, and not until after his death at age 85, had they heard anything about the first marriage. A child who probably would have liked to have known her father. Such is the pits we dig, the excess baggage we carry, the character flaws for which we will be judged.

No person who goes to hell will challenge god, will ask why, we know that he has the goods on us, he knows the truth. Only through his forgiveness can we escape the inevitable, He gave us freedom, the freedom to fail.

Intimidation

In the 1959 movie adaptation of The Mouse That Roared, Peter Sellers expends the limit of his talent in depicting royalty with a British attempt to invade the United States in a time of economic woes. The plot is based on the basis of intimidation, the easiest way to win a war or an argument. The American citizenry has been captured through the process of intimidation, citizens scared to do anything on their own.

The once buttress of freedom, the church, the pulpit, the very essence of freedom of speech, pastors so intimidated to say anything for fear of losing their tax status. The threats against the church, mostly underground whispers have gone on for many years. There are 370,000 churches in America. With all the pretended threats against the church, loss of tax status, not one church has ever lost its tax exempt status. One did have difficulties with the government for a period of 24 hours, but all was restored.

Most intimidation is just a matter of talk, like the bully on the schoolyard, talk is cheap. When threatened, just smile, this is the best disarming tactic, when someone says, “I am going to sue you”, just smile and say, “don't scare me like that”. Only one who has been through legal recourse knows the horror story involved...never-ending, deep pockets. Finding courageous people is not easy. I believe that 90% of Christian faith is just raw courage. Christ did not die for groups: the women's circle, the men's brotherhood, youth activities, but for the individual, who, while alive and in death stands alone in a relationship with him. Find fellow Christians who are sold out, new creation in Christ, more and more real Christians are worshiping in private homes, tired of large, some even mega, churches, painted with proud pretension.

I note that Obama and Hillary Clinton for the first time in history are using freedom to worship instead of freedom of religion. Freedom of religion involves every place, the public square, the streets, freedom to worship involves just inside the personal home or house of worship. You will note that liberal Democrats are doing everything possible to remove freedom of religion from every public place. Dr. Michael Newdow, physician-lawyer who has led the fight to remove God from our money, pledge of allegiance, everything, says, “ [he] is not against God in worship, but God in the public arena.” He wants God off the streets, the liberals are willing to intimidate, threaten in every way possible, to get their way with religion, healthcare, speech, sex and education.

Anyone who objects to anything in the liberal agenda is now called a racist. The liberals have found that racism is their most effective weapon. We have always had racism, the history of the world is marked by conflicts between tribes, races and civilizations....between the haves and the have-nots. Christ told us that we will have the poor with us always (Matthew 26:11, Mark 14:7). I am convinced that Christ gave us the great commandment, to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-39). God had a reason for different skin colors, different racial characteristics, this is just one of the many tests. It is easy to love God, because God does not intimidate. The real test comes in loving a neighbor as yourself. Most of our neighbors are so unlovable, I come into contact with people of a totally different value system: smelly, incorrigible, callous, listening to pagan music, using heathen language, and God expects me to love them as myself. (I note that most Ph.Ds now use the f-word as a noun, verb, adjective, etc. in polite conversation, just to intimidate.) He does not specify neighbor qualities, but, you can be sure that it is God's business whom he loves, just as it is God's business whose offerings he accepts (first family, Abel's offering was accepted but Kane's was not). He is Boss. We are put here to glorify him, and to obey.

In my lifetime, I have seen every freedom in human endeavor and responsibility taken over by government. You cannot do anything anymore without a permit or license. Just wait until Obama's socialized healthcare takes over, your very last freedom. Start now to detox your body, build up your immune system. One of the best cartoons I have seen recently, a family standing, watching a casket put into the back of a hearse. One family member said to another, “we told mama that healthcare is rationed.” Healthcare will be rationed and those who are too old to be producers, too young to be taxpayers, the disabled who can no longer support the system, will get little care.

77 million baby boomers will depend on social security and socialized healthcare, both federal systems are broke and getting more broken each day, with a national debt increasing at the rate of 3.87 billion a day. Remember, young people, the national debt is now 14 trillion dollars (A trillion dollars is a million million dollars). Since January 1 of 2010, your parts of this debt, thanks to Obama's bailouts and spinouts, has increased from $40,000 to $45,000 for each man, woman and child in America.

I have known some mixed up people in my time, the most mixed up young man I have ever known worked for me for a while. He had been reared by his lesbian mother and her lesbian lover, yet just this week we find a researcher, Charlotte Patterson, from the University of Virginia, who states that same-sex married couples should be able to adopt children. Instead of a researcher, she is a propagandist, having written several books about lesbian marriage. Children are intimidated enough in the very sensitive years of sex identification, and sensitivity, why are we bringing these traumas on societies, and for a country supposedly interested in children, on our children. Have we not betrayed their innocence sufficiently? Have we not intimidated their thought processes completely?

Satan has his own methods of intimidating every life, with me, a child of poverty, product of loneliness, Christ having occupied the inner man, I had my “spiritual Waterloo” sitting on a stone fence behind Wilson library at UNC Chapel Hill. I was discouraged beyond words to express. For the first time in my life, I had found happiness in learning, enjoyment in the fulfillment of my “Mensa” mind. This was a time before scholarships and grants, I was trying to carry a full student load yet work my way through the university. I did not have money for food, I was hungry, I must make the decision to go back home, whipped, where there was food, or try endure, try to find some way to conquer the education which the holy spirit of God demanded.

God whispered to me, “in the medical school library, the school where you work, there are large leather chairs, money falls out of pockets into the chairs.” That night, I retrieved enough money from those chairs to keep me going until the next pay check. Do not be intimidated by the world, the flesh, the devil, where there is seemingly no way, God will always make a way. Do not be intimidated by family, your worse enemies are your family. Those who have so much of this world's things, learn not to love the world and the things of the world (1 John 2:15). Learn not to be intimidated by the big deals of the world. No matter how far you climb up the ladder, there is always someone above you. Just make sure your ladder is leaning on the right structure.

Warning Shots

In the old western movies, often a warning shot was fired. This let the enemy know that you would shoot, in today's world. There is no time for warning shots, often not time enough for a second shot, the enemy may think you too scared to shoot, so you better get your one shot. I was never a hunter, my only familiarity with firearms was military, from 1959 until 1968 the army used the M14 rifle, the only one I ever fired, and although replaced by the M16, the M14 is still considered the best, Mr. Clinton destroyed most of the M14s. Once, on my several trips to the middle east, I was in the so-called “no man's land” between Pakistan and Afghanistan, near the Khyber pass, it was where the famous Khyber rifles were built, bolt-action rifles still used after 200 years by the tribesmen, these men with the blackest eyes I have seen, explained the building of the rifle to me.

The longest war in American history, now going on 9 years, 188 Americans have been killed by these tribal sharpshooters. A rag-tag military trained and supplied 25 years ago by Americans, now, called the Taliban, led by Osama bin Laden, instead of fighting Russia, now they are fighting us.

I correspond with my Republican senator very often, I bring many things to his attention, this morning he said, “the national debt is now 14 trillion dollars”. A trillion is a million million dollars, so that is 14 with twelve zeros: 14,000,000,000,000. That is a real warning shot, for those sane enough to care. All this debt was not all brought on by the Sunni Muslim, Marxist, Hussein Obama, but his administration has certainly spurred it on. At the beginning of 2010, every man, woman, child was in debt to the government for 40,000 dollars. Today, six months later, each one is debt 45,000 dollars. Some actually believed him when he said he would bring spending under control.

McCain might not have done any better, his record is liberal, we probably would have had the same type socialized healthcare plan, perhaps bailouts. I do not believe we would have the same type end-of-life issues in the healthcare plan, rationing. The one phrase which passed the Obama plan, a plan which the country cannot afford: preexisting conditions. Insurance companies are not crazy enough to cover preexisting conditions, only the government will care for your illness regardless of conditions. They may put on a piece of paper that they cover preexisting conditions, but loopholes may move them out of the coverage, if nothing else, rationing and end-of-life issues. You can be sure that scarce money will not be spent on old people. Dr. Donald Berwick is Obama's Czar controlling all healthcare, a recess appointment, he would have never been approved because his record is clear: he is a devotee of socialized care, particularly that of England.

The ACLU, the most communist organization in America, founder Roger Baldwin said, “the aim is communism.” The ACLU blames Obama for continuing the Bush wars, they should know that the third World War has already begun, in the middle east, three fronts: Iran, Syria, Afghanistan. America is depending on China to keep North Korea in line.

I have traveled the world, I have never heard BBC radio speak of a city I have not visited. There is poverty in every city, only in America do you see street people eating out of garbage cans, because it is only in America that people throw food away. In Raleigh, Arizona, Washington DC, you have busloads of people protesting, most of us are at work while they are protesting. Where do they get the money for travel, for surviving as they protest?

There are 77 million baby-boomers who will expect to draw social security. Social security, like everything else in government is broke. The Google outfit on your computer has become your worst nightmare, Google is now the NSA (National Security Administration), working with the CIA and FBI, your government knows what you are doing at all times, everything about you. The Google trucks patrol the world, snooping on every continent. You can search any building, anywhere, you can find the tax paid on any building, anywhere. I am a rare book collector, yesterday me and an assistant were looking for a rare book. It was in one library (University of Kentucky), it had never been checked out. Another assistant asked me about my NYC address, he said, “I'm looking at the building right now.” This is the amount of privacy you have left in your life: Facebook, Twitter, all your research, it is all a matter of international knowledge. According to records, the people who sign in most at the White House are Google executives. Top lobbyists from Google meet with the National Security Council. Stalin, Hitler, Mao could only dream of such control.

Google is known to spy on every Congressmen, they have the goods on all of them. You can be assured that the Obama, Pelosi duo will get any vote they want because as we have certainly learned with Mr. Wrangle and others, many have much to hide. You hide nothing from Google, it is the biggest spy scandal in the world, and most people do not have a clue. The congresspeople in charge of intelligence oversight get thousands in political contributions from Google lobbyists. The thing that should keep Americans awake, shadow government, Google knowing everything about you, your business, your health, your estate.

Georg Hegel, teacher of Marx and John Dewey, instilled the ideas of nationalism and socialism which brings in to play every evil of eugenics, plant and animal control. His was the philosophy of slavery, Stalin, Mao, even Bokassa and Castro tried it. No one have been able to accomplish the total enslavement of a people. The human spirit is too strong, the desire to be free, with total control, it has taken a long time and certain sick individuals. He might succeed, because Americans have been dumbed down as no other society in history.