1895's 8th grade Final Exam paper
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Monday, March 12, 2012
8th Grade Education?
Friday, March 9, 2012
River Traffic
Traveling the world, great cities of the world, almost all built on water, in fact, coming in for airplane landings, you often feel that the plane will land on water, because most air terminals, large cities, built near water, because airports must have much space, both air and land. Studying political geography, nearly all large interior cities, built strategically on rivers.
Early Christians were familiar with the barges, river traffic on both the Nile and Euphrates rivers. Jerusalem, the world's greatest Holy city not built on a river. Instead, deep under the city of Jerusalem, limestone containing rivers of water. When Sennacherib, King of Persia, conqueror and destroyer of most cities around Jerusalem, encamped around the walls of the city, actually believed that he could conquer Jerusalem just from withholding water and goods from water traffic.
The Psalms usually involve stress. The 46th Psalm involves the duress as explained in Isaiah 36. In our imagination, we can hear those Jewish people who always stood for the reading or singing of God's Word, singing Psalm 46 at the time of the seizure of Jerusalem. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.”
We must remember that these people were looking towards the cross, the central point of all history. The 21st century Christian is looking away from the cross, with a knowledge of explosives, nuclear energy, the fact that fanatical-critical wisdom of men could actually move mountains into the sea. The difference, old testament believers in God, closer to the parting of the Red Sea and the Jordan River, could actually believe in such Power from God. We have a history of times when people were starved in walled cities. This was not the time, just one angel from God, killed 184,000 Syrian soldiers encamped around the city that very night. And, Sennacherib did the smartest thing he had ever done, he went home. GOD ALWAYS HAS THE LAST WORD. Pharaoh realized that, when he and his 600 chariots were drowned in the Red Sea.
My home is on a river with much traffic. During the summer, I sleep with the window open and can hear the river traffic as well as the planes coming in at the local airport. With the activity of the world, flesh, devil around us, we can be as miserable as Paul, (Romans 7) “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”
Paul learned as do all who are chosen (Paul was chosen before, persecutor, killer of Christians, on the 150 mile road from Jerusalem to Damascus, to jail more) that we are a blessed, “peculiar” people with the blessed assurance of knowing that “He will never leave us nor forsake us.” (Hebrews 13:5) It is a strange thing to me that Christians do not bask in the Supreme Happiness of knowing that God is in charge. This is fundamental Christianity. Yet, most Baptist and other churches, a known Christian, problem of any type, a “supposed” Christian pastor will send a church member to an infidel psychologist for help. We worship a God of peace, comfort, healing, over and over we are told that He heals. “I am the God that healeth thee.” (Exodus 15:26, Isaiah 53, 1 Peter 2:24)
My only child, son, Dr. John Morris, he and his wife, SBC foreign missionaries said, “With new believers, they first pray before they go to the doctor.” We have the story of one woman “who for twelve years had spent all on physicians”, but felt that if she could only touch Him, she would be healed, and so she was. (Luke 8: 43-48) One can only imagine the jostling crowds around Him on that day, but she did touch Him, persistent, believing. That very day He healed a leper. (incurable, the AIDS of that time) He healed all manner of sickness. One should never forget the Gadarenes, legion, demon possessed man in the graveyard. After Jesus healed him, the people of the city asked Jesus to leave, they evidently preferred to have a crazy man in the graveyard, possessed with 200 demons. If Jesus came to the average town today, proceeded to stop the money flow into doctor's offices-hospitals, stop the demons encircling the courthouse, school house, country, civic, golf, “boozing” clubs, would He be asked to leave? Do you ever consider those who are demon possessed on your street or in your church?
The living Word became the spoken Word, became the written Word. If your Christianity is real, you cannot get enough of God's Word. Your opinion or my opinion about the church does not matter. God is only concerned with our trust.
Playing War Games
“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34)
Let's get one thing straight in the beginning, our minds have been so polluted from the liberal television talking-heads as well as the modernists, sociologists in the pulpits. Jesus does not love everybody, certainly not those who hate Him and hate His followers. He talks much about separating the sheep from the goats, about those He has chosen for His own, and those He will parade around in eternity as those who He trusted and who put their trust in Him. We know some just “play” church.
I have studied science and biology my entire life, the older I get, the more amazed I become with predestination biology, such as the microorganism in the honey bee which only has a life span of two hours, and, in those two hours, must select a mate of the opposite sex and keep the whole life process of the honey bee effective. All knowledge is measured, compared to the stature of Christ.
With magnificence God designed everything for His glory, including man. (homo sapiens) The botanist can study a plant anywhere in the world, it's morphology will be the same. So it is with man, whether you study anatomy or physiology in any language, everything the same. I have traveled the world, much difference in circumstances, but human nature and religious faith follows certain predictions. In Christianity, faith changes circumstances instead of circumstances changing faith, as you find in many false religions, such as the Koran.
As I stated before, God made it all, knows the ending as well as the beginning. (Revelation 22:13) He is always at the crossroads of our life, before we get there, knows ahead of time what will happen, but gives us the free will to ask, pray, depend on His grace.
Atheists, pretenders, do not have sense enough to realize or study it, but the greatest mystery in the mind of man is how the church grew. One solitary figure, God-man, putting on a tent of human flesh, selecting (remember, He chooses) a small group of followers who, because of their belief in His life and resurrection, with courage, spread His “good news” around the world, the predestined plan of God. Paul, God's writer for about everything concerning his church, was called by God in a most unusual way, on the road to Damascus. Paul certainly did not stage the event. God gave Satan control of the earth and knew a time of separation would come. Satan is limited, but nothing makes him happier than to interfere and fake God's work, usually through deception.
God must get a “GOOD LAUGH” observing the local church house. The church is supposed to be a group of called-chosen believers. (But, particularly in fundamentalist, evangelical churches, here comes a prominent couple in the community... country-clubbers, professionals, they are better educated than most, such as doctors, lawyers, professors, well-spoken, well-dressed.) The first thing you know, they are in places of leadership, teaching, even on the board of deacons. No one ever takes the time to ascertain if they have had a real experience with Christ. They may speak of God, everyone, even the devil, believes in God. Shepherd Jesus, knows His sheep and His sheep know Him. (John 10:14) When enough of these unsaved (tares) get into the church, take over the church, because they are so out-spoken, charismatic, “worldly”. The church becomes a “club” manipulated by the “ideas” of people instead of a HOLY worship center of Christians worshiping the worthiness and Power of God.
21st century thought processes can easily compare the church with country. Modernist denominations such as anxious Anglicans, liberal Lutherans, midget Methodists, puny Presbyterians, bantam Baptists, are much like our once patriotic republic. Psychological trash, hogwash, fairness, sorcery, “all you need is love”, has taken over the church house as well as the state house.
I was a young professional in town, visited and decided to join the oldest Baptist church in town, then meeting in the courthouse because the church auditorium was in the final stages of refurbishment. Immediately I was ordained as a deacon, I noticed the other deacons showed little evidence of having experienced a born-again, good blood-washing in the precious, cleansing of Christ. Particularly, the “potty-mouth” chairman. They asked me to pray at the first deacon's meeting I attended. They had never heard anything like that before. “God, we were chosen by you before the foundation of earth, now chosen by your people as leaders. God, it makes no difference how great or beautiful your building, but the beauty of the temples inside your building, beginning with your pastor and deacons. Bless us with the cleanest minds, devoted totally to your work, the cleanest mouths, proclaiming your gospel, encouraging those around us, giving them every reason to trust us and you. We are to make members count instead of counting members. Deny us your glory if, in any way, we deny your steadfastness, because we are living epistles, read by the world, both inside and outside this building.”
About two weeks later, first service in the new building, funeral for the chairman of the deacon board, who had committed suicide. There was little talk, he lived on the best street in town, successful business, fine children. I do not know but God does.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Global Exoneration
A 1975, Monty Python, BBC, movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, King Arthur and his knights, in this historical comedy, were attempting to find the Holy Grail. The knight in battle, first lost one arm, then the other arm, but still felt that he was a valuable soldier-fighter. He lost one leg and then the other, there he was, just a torso in full armor. But, he still had the heart of wanting to fight.
America is in financial default, worse off than Greece, and does not realize it yet. All terms have been redefined, decadence and indecency prevail. Former governor-senator, Corzine still rides around in his chauffeured limousine, does not know what happened to all the money. Nothing has changed, the same type people... religious big wheels, political pinheads, who turned Barabbas, the robber, loose to keep stealing on the streets, crucified the perfect-sinless son of God. Those whose money was stolen by Corzine-Obama-Bernanke, and their ilk, are riding in limousines, eating the choicest food from gold plates, while those who took the investment risk, exercise skills in survival.
When America came home from WWII, riding on the “running-boards” of those classic vehicles, Nazi scientists and mathematicians. (for instance Wernher von Braun, Redstone Arsenal's rocket expert, became best friends with Walt Disney, now you understand the rocket science in Disney movies-comic books) One German mathematician, the one who developed rocket trajectory, Dr. Alfred Brauer, became a noted mathematician at UNC-CH where he taught me advanced calculus. One of the first things I remember him doing, mathematically, proving that one equals two... just one little mathematical error in the many equations. The brilliant, but funny old man said, “I will give you one dolla and you give me two.” Those who purchased Greek bonds are getting back a 70% decrease on their investment, you pay $1,000.00 for a bond, you get back $300.00. The only reason the US Dollar is holding up, it is the world's most secure currency, the Euro Dollar, a disaster, people investing in US Dollars. Much like, the Titanic sinking, boarding the Lusitania, which will sink in the future.
The son of Judge Hubert Oliver, Lexington, NC, judge at the Nuremberg trials was at school at Chapel Hill with me. We need a Nuremberg tribunal to try the participants of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) for flooding the world with $700 trillion in derivative contracts. Just pieces of paper, much like fiat dollars, backed by thin air. Did all the financial experts, university professors, “money-changers” in the world, totally lose their minds? There is no way for this debt to be paid, entire world based on financial obligations which can never be repaid.
You can be sure, that if you owed the Internal Revenue Service money, that if you owed money in a child support arrangements, you would be hounded down and jailed. Those who have put the world in total financial turmoil, should be hunted down, one by one, and hanged.
The emperor is naked, the entire economy of the world is hanging by a thread. Banking systems held together with band-aids.
So that the welfare moochers will not be embarrassed with food stamps, the 50% of the American population depending on the production of others, now have plastic cards.
Channel 9, Colorado TV station investigation, 220,000 welfare transactions, much welfare money spent in liquor stores, $6000.00, just one store.
Thievery-decadence-sinfulness has always been a matter of degree. The thief in the limousine is as guilty as the thief on the bicycle. In the limousine, one drinking from a flask, has an alcohol problem, with ones possessions in a grocery cart under a bridge, one drinking bum-ripple from a bottle, is called a drunk.
Survival, living conditions, the entire history of man, built around the necessity for separation, the clean from the unclean. You learn early on the farm, that the rotten apples, potatoes, raw meats, must be separated from the good, otherwise everything becomes rotten-worthless. We live in a time, globally, when anything-everything is excused-exonerated. Satan has a very definite plan, he cannot create anything, only destroy.
So, here lies the financial world, full armor, limbless.
The Stamina of Lent
For the casual church-goer, where going to church is more a matter of habit than heart, the annual observance of Lent is a mystical mystery. The average evangelical, even fundamentalist Christian, does not even possess the sacredness of these weeks preceding the celebration of our blessed Lord's resurrection in THEIR lexicon of belief. Like the actuarial fact that every 188 days an earth-occurrence (earthquake, volcano, tornado, flood, etc.) event occurs somewhere in the world, most just approach physical and spiritual events with casual indifference. “According to the nutty-fanatics, there may be something to it.” God knew when He created mankind, that even in church congregations, there are two groups, one group INTENT on obedience, desiring heaven, the rest busy with the world, flesh, devil CONTENT on busting hell wide open.
For the Christian, particularly Catholics, Lent is the 40 days preceding Easter, in Christendom, celebrating the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Without the resurrection, our faith is in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:14) The greatest act of obedience comprehended by the mind of man, the son of God is obedience to His father, sacrifice-atonement on the cross for the sin of the world, past, present, future. It is the faithfulness of Jesus Christ that we celebrate... that God putting His wrath for the sin and sicknesses of the world on the one whom He loved best, SUFFICIENT forever.
The traditional Catholic, and many Christians, believe that this is a time for repentance, increased giving, and self-denial. Many repent by giving up some luxury of their daily lifestyle or even fasting and food.
It is this writer's firm conviction that repentance is a turning from sin, born again, new creation, and in our daily walk as a Christian, the denial of self. (Luke 9:23) In taking up our cross daily, we become a living sacrifice, transformed. (Romans 12) We are Ambassadors, foreigners, peculiar people, strangers and pilgrims our citizenship in heaven. (1 Peter 2:9)
Impetuous Peter, “rock” who knew the failure of warming himself at the enemy's fire, denial, yet could preach with such conviction that 3000 were saved on the day of Pentecost. (50 days after the resurrection)
This writer suffers from constant agony that those who are chosen, those who believe, those so blessed, are so lackadaisical in their election, are agonized that those who are lost, and really do not care, have no idea of their fate. The greatest joy the human heart can know, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” (Philippians 3:10)
For those giving up steak or liquor for a few days, those who think that your signature on a church membership card will suffice, even if you have been baptized in every baptistry, sprinkled by every ordained hand, basic Christianity leads you to the parable of the sower. Jesus tells you that unless you understand the parable of the sower, you do not understand anything about His book.
Same seed, same sower, different soils. Some seed, (God's Word) fell on the wayside, (sidewalk) no soil-interest, bird feed: Some seed fell on rocky ground, little soil but with sunshine and rain, the seeds sprouted. Much excitement in the beginning but with no rooted foundation. First stress-doubt, plant death: Some seed fell among thorns-bushes. These plants grew but, the cares of the world, deceitfulness of riches, lust for other things, no development: But, God is in charge-makes the choice, some fell on good ground and brought forth much fruit.
I so remember the farms of my great grandparents, grandparents, parents. Before the time of grocery stores, etc. my great grandfathers had so much knowledge of plants, trees, even the grafting of fruit trees. They had remarkable fruit. (pear-apples, etc.) Trees which produced fruit, year after year, always dependable. This is what God expects from those He has chosen for Himself, every day of every year.
Often, on my many trips to Jerusalem, I would walk the stations of the cross... those dirty streets where our blessed Lord, beaten and broken, dragged that cruel tree. At the ninth station, he fell the third time, why not just lie there? What other horrific things could they do, despised and rejected (Isaiah 53:3) He would be nailed on a cruel cross, giving Himself for the sin and sicknesses of the world, past, present, future. All prophesy, all promises, in God's book, are in past tense. He knew what was expected of Him and we know what is expected of us. You can play around with church if you wish, God gave us free will but I warn you not to “mess around” with God, man made traditions, man made ideas of fairness, man made ideas of superficial repentance. If you choose Jesus, you must lose the world, take up YOUR cross daily.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Simple to the Profound
“When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.” (Psalm 56:9)
The first time I was in USSR, communist Russia, my traveling companion was a news man with WOR Radio/TV, New York. We engaged a driver-guide each place we visited, Moscow, Leningrad. Kiev, etc. I said to him, “It seems to me that everyone is drunk.” The driver said, “Alcoholism is Russia's greatest problem.” Anyone would notice that in the horror pit of life, in a totalitarian state, drunkenness was probably an escape from the reality of living. Surely someone, other than this writer, has noticed the almost obnoxious laughing of an audience in a live television performance, such as the late night shows. People laugh about things that are not really funny. It appears they just want an escape by laughing at just anything. We find this even in televised church services. The preacher more an entertainer than proclaimer of the Gospel... everything punctuated by laughing and clapping.
It is time for someone to demystify spiritual things, to get the nonsense out of the pulpits, choir lofts, vestibules of the churches. The church worship service is not a social gathering. There may be room for levity at a civic club meeting, some political gatherings, but we live in a time when we should awaken to the seriousness of the problems that surround us. When you consider that the world owes a debt of $706 trillion debt, and there is not that much money in the world, politically, there is little to laugh about. Too many people pray, expecting God to go along with them. Don't mess around with God, there is nothing in His book not serious. At Mt. Sinai, wilderness, the people were told that they would die if they even touched the mountain. Chief priest Aaron, Moses' older brother, saw his two priest sons evaporated by fire because they disobeyed God.
David, “a man after God's own heart” ,(Acts 13:22) anointed King of Israel, seeking to escape the wrath of Israel's first King, Saul, hid in the cave of Adullam, surrounded by a small army of misfits, loyal to him.
We must put flesh and blood on Bible characters to fully understand God's work in their lives. Perhaps Psalm 56 tells the story. David, and those around him, hungry, smelly, from not having eaten or bathed for weeks. We have all been there, thinking we were at the end of the rope. But think of the words that came from David's mouth, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil. They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul. Shall they escape by iniquity? in thine anger cast down the people, O God. Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book? When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me. In God will I praise his word: in the LORD will I praise his word.” (Psalm 56:3-10)
There is little time in life, at least for the Christian, for foolishness or nonsense. Even if you live as long as this writer, 82 years, you better learn early to have the courage of faith, a mountain of trust in God to hold on to, a firm grip. Satan and his cohorts, the world around you, temptations of the flesh, pernicious evil, will use every trick possible in his bag of tricks, to snare-entrap you, your own family and associates will call you a nutty-fanatic. This is the reason that Jesus told us that we must be willing to give up everyone and cling to the knowledge of His everlasting arms. (Deuteronomy 33:27)
When you put your trust in His Word, His Word is on trial in you, a living epistle, a living soul. George Foreman, the boxer, said, “When I became a Christian, I was raised from the dead”... and so he was. His focus shifted from himself and the world around him, to the cross.
Many years ago, I became so “heart-sick”, speaking in churches, particularly Baptist churches, where there was never a cross. The Christian cross should be the epicenter of every church, every church activity. Only the Catholics have succeeded to have crucifixes dominate their services and buildings. Such a tragedy that Catholicism now compromises with Obama and his ilk, (Georgetown), father Jenkins and his ilk, (Notre Dame), in the nonsense of removing crosses because of the offense to Muslims and the sexually promiscuous, (Miss Fluke-Georgetown.)
In the Song of Asher, Moses speaking to the children of Israel, message from God, they would have shoes of iron and brass because of the hard trip. (Deuteronomy 33:25) The Christian trip is hard, not complicated, but tough.
In the global swindle, just as Nirenberg, world bankers should be tried and hanged. There have been three great awakenings, elimination of slavery in Brattain through the efforts of Wilberforce, the American revolution, the elimination of slavery in America. As a nation and as a Christian remnant, we have come too far to fall so soon. Jude, said it all, Probably a brother of Jesus, give particular attention to the last verse. “Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear – hating even the clothing stained by corrupt flesh.” (Jude 1:21-23)
Monday, March 5, 2012
Pulling Back the Curtain
God does not waste words in His book. His book is silent on many things, but everything we need to know is there. His word can be summed up in two words, integrity and sacrifice. We, who bear the name of Christ, must be a living sacrifice in a profane society, world, flesh, devil, our lives of integrity. IF, eighty years ago, when I was a child, the curtain could have been pulled back, showing what life would be like now, no one, absolutely no one would believe such. We just refuse to believe that God knew what He was talking about (2 Timothy 3) at the end of the world. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He has already seen the parade, knew how broad the “road” to destruction. (Matthew 7:13)
We could not have believed such because everything in His book, everything in every biology, sociology, legal, book, sees marriage between a man and a woman. Not in the imagination of the heathen could one believe their would actually be same-sex marriage. Only in the imagination of the heathen could a nation believe that military forces could have bi-sexuals, men, women, attempting to win a war when, the most powerful force in combat is “espirit de corps”.
Only the heathen would have believed that one-fourth of the female population would have tattoos, that news broadcasts would be filled with attempts to force taxpayers to pay for “contraceptives”. God knows more about the heathen than do we, but the anguish of forcing the Catholic denomination (colleges, hospitals) to throw out their historical doctrines proclaiming their pro-life status. God obviously knows more about the heathen than do we. WHY the unborn should be killed, promoted by those who are paid to teach children, promoted by old people who want young people to work and pay taxes for their entitlements.
When the masculine cell fertilizes the first female cell, a new person, an individual fingerprint has been created. The population, development of the earth, depends entirely on procreation. Selfish, hedonistic disciples of Satan, like the eugenicists, Margaret Sanger, Bill Gates, Adolph Hitler, Mao Tse Tung, want to limit the world's population. The population of the earth, 7 billion at present, could live in the state of Texas, no more thickly “squeezed” than the citizens of Washington, DC. We have a citizenry, so stupid, that poisons (fluoride, chloride, used by Nazi Germany to control captives) are placed in water systems while at the same time forbidding the smoking of cigarettes on a beach, where wind is too “torrential” to fly a kite. We have a citizenry now, eighty-two years from my birth, in which 50% of producers are expected to support the other 50% of moochers, a citizenry, in which 52% of all black babies are killed before birth, 70% are in a one parent home. A citizenry in which, in addition to illegal addictions, Big Pharma wants every man, woman, and child taking two legal prescriptions each day. With “seedless” marriages, seedless plant life-vegetables-fruits, genetically-controlled everything.
Our ancestors would never believe that parents would so “hate” their children that they would force them into a pagan schoolhouse, a pagan church house, (lesbian preacher in the pulpit) a pagan courthouse-state house where justice is no longer blind or blind-folded, but justice has large pockets for large bills.
God will allow us to go as crazy as we want to go, go as far astray as we want to go, will beat us to death with war. Ronnie Milsap sang the song, Any Day Now. Before the end of 2012, Middle East war, American ships, Indian Ocean, planes and drones over the Middle East, 18 million killed in Syria, the population of Cairo, 18 million, probably 18 million killed in Iran... hundreds of thousands in Israel. Can we even imagine the horror story in this country before the curtain falls?, end of the performance.
Jephthah
This writer does not pretend to be a theologian or bible scholar. But, for those who are, putting flesh and blood on historical, biblical characters, is beyond interesting. I have known some scholars who memorized the entire New Testament. I believe it is not beyond the grasp of the human mind for a physicist or chemist to memorize the periodic table... atomic weights, etc. I do not want a surgeon cutting on me who has not carefully memorized the location of major blood vessels. Even an exterminator without knowledge of insects. It should be a challenge to every person who claims the name of Christ, chosen-elected by God, to have a knowledge of Old Testament history and biographies. Such is Jephthah, great grandson of Noah, his father Gilead, his mother a prostitute. Never underestimate genetics. Jephthah became one of God's men of valor. (Judges 11)
Although disowned by his family, Jephthah was a captain of the armies of Israel. In warfare against Moab and Ammon, Jephthah made a vow with God that if allowing him to win, he would sacrifice the first person emerging from his house, probably thinking that it would be a servant. But the first person emerging from his house, on his return from battle, was his daughter, his only child. With her agreement, he kept his promise-vow (burnt offering) to the Lord. In this day, when fairness instead of God's Law, is preached from most pulpits, the Christian must renew their knowledge of God's honor, as Paul, early explained, in his epistle to the Romans.
One of my best friends in the military was a black medical officer, born and reared in the Mississippi delta. His poor family, one way or another, along with his working, got him through Meharry medical school in Nashville, Tennessee. He told me about one of his cousins, illegitimate son of a wayward daughter who did not even know the name of his father. He, too, achieved a college education and went on to attain the rank of Brigadier General in the army, one of the first blacks to do so. Unlike the doctor, who had a loving family, the General was largely disowned by his known relatives, simply because he was a victim of circumstance.
My own father had relatives who in the South were known as primitive or “hard-shell” Baptists. There is still a large “hard-shell” Baptist denomination stretching across America, one has a national radio program. I well remember the televised funeral service for Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, Texas, a member of the primitive Baptist denomination. The radio commentators describing the funeral service, could not understand there is a religious denomination where musical instruments are not used, that the ministers are not seminary trained. My father told of going to the courthouse with his uncle, a primitive Baptist, his foot slipping on some ice and his uncle rolling down a flight of marble steps. In the South, the preeminence of a county... it's wealth, is largely determined by the courthouse steps... the wealthier the county, the higher the steps. This was Wilson county, many steps, and when it was over, his uncle said, “I'm am glad that is over.” He believed that he was “predestined” to fall down those steps.
God does not want some people converted, only the ones He calls. Jesus told us that if we understand the parable of the sower, we understand this truth. In the parable, same sower, same seed, different soil. Sarah, Isaac, son of promise. Abraham, many other children from other women. Abraham's son, Isaac, twin sons Esau and Jacob, Jacob selected, the selectivity of God. (Romans 1-9) God said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” (Romans 9:15) Certainly, God hardened the heart of Pharaoh. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. (1 Corinthians 9:24) Know that you are blessed, chosen, elected, called by God.
I do not pretend to know the mind of God. Only that He is “BOSS”, in charge, Sovereign. You do not play around, play games with God. As a young boy, I never could understand why many older men would stand in the church yard, smoking their cigarettes , talking about everything except God's Word. With age, standing outside large city churches, same type men, talking about ballgames. They never showed any interest in God's word perhaps, would give a few dollars, did not mind that their wives and children were religious. Of course, when they died, their preacher and family “promoted” them into heaven. I certainly do not know about anyone else except myself. We know that Christ went to the cross because of His father, that Jephthah's daughter went to her death because of Jephthah's vow.
Be thankful the you had a desire to put your hand on the plow, don't turn back. (Luke 9:62)
Friday, March 2, 2012
Eye of the Needle
“And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:24)
Judy's dughter, Liza Minelli, famous tune:
Money makes the world go around
The world go around
The world go around
Money makes the world go around
It makes the world go 'round.
A mark, a yen, a buck, or a pound
A buck or a pound
A buck or a pound
Is all that makes the world go around,
That clinking clanking sound
Can make the world go 'round.
God only had to say it one time, we should all give careful attention: “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” (1 Timothy 6:10)
Remember, Jesus did not say money, but the love of money. When I was a child, working in the fields, an older lady, Mrs. Sarah Peedin, would say to me, “Thomas today we are going to put a dollar in our pocket because that is what we got for a day's work, $1, 100 cents. Today, the fiat $1 is only worth 3 cents, decreased 97% in value in my lifetime.
I own a blessed life, ancestry, heritage, God having given me a “chance” at education and the “desire” to travel the entire world and make much money. I have seen human beings living in straw-clay huts, and seen Maharaja palaces where even the walls were decorated with precious stones. The unbeliever would ask, “why such disparity? The “occupiers”, protestors, Marxists would ask, “why such unfairness.”? Why would God Himself, be born in a cow stable?, live his 33 years on earth in poverty. When, all the cattle on a thousand hills are His (Psalm 50:10), as well as all the gold and jewels, as well as the hills, in which it is found, are His. He paid His taxes from a coin in the mouth of a fish. He does not need our money.
When the soldiers and demon possessed, Judas, came to arrest Jesus at Gethsemane, He asserted that He could call on 12 legions of angels (150,000) to protect Him. Just one angel killed 184,000, just one night, Sennacherib's army, outside the walls of Jerusalem. God's book talks more about giving than about heaven. The Jews, having known poverty as well as wealth, given by God, made regular sacrifices because of God's laws, sometimes 200 a week. They learned how to follow God's law, could be swallowed by the earth for disobedience, Korah and his family. (Numbers 16:32)
It is no more difficult for a rich man to quit smoking than for a poor man to quit smoking, a rich man to stop philandering than a poor man, a rich man to learn the fundamentals of warfare or even investing money than for a poor man to be militarily trained and study the investing of money, whether he has any or not.
Our blessed Lord owns a very unusual instrument, stethoscope-microscope-telescope-CAT Scan-Magnetic radiological instrument, all in one. Our omnipotent-omniscient-Sovereign-inerrant God is able to study and determine everything about the human heart. He knows that you can give without loving but cannot love without giving, He knows that the real test of a man, particularly a man who claims the name of Christ, starts at the pocketbook.
I truly believe that Jesus was talking about the real test of prosperity, “Will a man rob God.” (Malachi 3:8) “God loveth a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:7) I truly believe that God was “messing around, getting nosy”, with rich men.
The tithe is the Lord's whether you give it or not. Tithing ten percent on $300.00 a week is far different that tithing 10% on $3 million a week. There are those who make that type money and $300,000 is a “hefty” tithe. This is the type giving, however, that God requires in His book.
You cannot stop cancer from eating your body, nor can anyone give or pay enough money to stop the disease. Cancer will not eat the soul.
There are people alive today, Queen of England, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, George Soros, who “possess” billions of dollars. At the last, no amount of money will buy one more breath. Jesus watched the widow give her all and He has watched expensive caskets roll into expensive churches knowing the real giving intent of the person in the box.
Breitbart, etc.
No one ever had a heart attack about what happened in the past, nor do most of us have heart attacks about what is happening today. Our concerns, stresses are usually future and we can do nothing at all about what happens in the future, not even 5 min, 5 hours, 50 hours in the future. Most of us have learned to take life one day at a time.
I am an old man, have taken 82 years, one day at a time. Days when I thought I would never make it, but I'm still here. When you learn that God is in charge, living becomes much easier. Every time we pass a cemetery, funeral home, we know that death is a certainty, that if you are chosen, elected, looking forward to eternal joy, death is not feared. Remember, we all age at the same rate of speed, always just one breath away.
And so it was with Andrew Breitbart, 43, much too soon. In my lifetime, I have seen political correctness take over, politicians-pastors parsing their words in order not to offend anyone. The old hymn states, “neutral you cannot be”. Preachers had rather see congregations of people die and go to hell, than to warn these sophisticated, good-smelling, charisma-laden that, unless they meet the well established laws of God, they are going to hell in spite of their power, prestige, popularity, or money. Politicians have allowed this once great, constitutional-republic to fall, as did the Roman Empire because they had rather please those with lots of money than those with no money, than do the right thing.
Breitbart told it as it is, investigated, brought the cowardice, decadence, deception of government to the attention of the public. AND, so, as with the history of man, he was despised by the liberals-communists-democrats and republicans in government. The secular, state-controlled news media will have little good to say about him or anyone else who puts integrity before influence.
So simple, patriotism, Christianity, commercialism, you can distinguish a crooked stick by putting it next to a straight one. Talk, excuses, propaganda, is cheap. It takes a real man to dig in, wearing the “full armor of God” (Ephesians 6) and keep walking, in spite of the threats and harassments of the past. We have a history of real men and women who, so committed and convinced, persevered, we have a history of this in God's book and every world history book which has not experienced liberal alteration. The saints of old, (Hebrews 11) in the lion's den or burned alive, were the pacesetters. Those who crossed the waters on small boats... sick, destitute.) Even the 56 signers of the Declaration, risked everything.
Breitbart was “killed” while taking a walk. My ancestors, arriving in New Jersey, founding Morristown, walked everywhere. We have no record of our blessed Lord going anywhere on wheels. We know that by the time Joseph was in Egypt, wheels were used. Jacob and his family were taken to Egypt by wagons which Pharaoh had sent. (Genesis 46:5) Later, 600 of Pharaoh’s chariots were lost in the Red Sea. Much later, we know that the Ark of the Covenant, against God's will, traveled on a cart. (1 Samuel 6:8) But, most animals walk... many with great burdens. (camels, oxen, mules, etc.) During the great depression people in the country would walk ten miles of more to town because their farm animals, so poorly fed, no gas or tires for vehicles.
Along with the other provisions made for God's chosen, the three million Jewish slaves, for 400 years in bondage, in Egypt, “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.” (Deuteronomy 33:25)
Flip flops, expensive Michael Jordan shoes, even combat boots, will not suffice. God gives us the strength we need for each day, and everything we need (even shoes) for that day. The trip is tough, not complicated. Have you been promised a tomorrow?
As my father would say to me, every time I warned him about his unhealthy diet, “I have outlived all of my doctors”
Breitbart was concerned about this lawless nation, lawless politicians and bureaucrats. He did not believe, as does the communist news media-liberal democrats, that you “go along to get along”, “the end justifies the means.” You will never convince the elitist academics or intelligentsia of the world, that the very foundation of all history is found in God's book. (Jerusalem means foundation of peace) To show how far the world, flesh, devil has walked us, Tel Aviv, “so-called” Holy land, is now the homosexual capital of the world. King David, walking and dancing before the Ark of God, would cleanse the place. This writer will challenge any liberal, especially modernist-liberal theologians, to study God's laws concerning man's behavior. Sinatra was wrong, “doing it my way”. God expects obedience, law or grace. Study the exactness with which Aaron and his sons performed the rituals of the priesthood. (Exodus 28, 29 etc.) You do not need to inform me that the world has changed, that recent presidents of the United States are philanderers, obsessive compulsive, high style livers, but the absolutes of right and wrong, good and evil... just as the mitochondria of cell metabolism, has not changed.
I have traveled the entire world, seen the mountains around Jerusalem several times. Those mountains will not change. It is up to us to cling to our mountains of faith, good grip, don't let go.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Fusillading
This Field Grade army officer never saw a military execution, firing squad. (fusillading) In this 21st Century, politically correct world, the enemy are treated better than our own military veterans. Just recently we learned that the cremated remains of veterans at Dover, Delaware (US military mortuary), were disposed of in a garbage dump. At the same time, it was announced by the same US military that $750,000 has just been spent preparing a soccer field so the prisoners (Islamic terrorists) at Guantanamo, Cuba will have a better place for their soccer games.
I never saw a firing squad but, I did see a retiring Army Surgeon General put to death in a US Army hospital, In other articles, I have described the unbelievable circumstances surrounding the US Army hospital, Fort McClellan, Alabama, where I was on staff. Along with rocket experts (Van Braun, Brauer etc.) which America brought back from defeated Nazi Germany. Nazi doctors and nurses to staff that hospital, closest military facility to Red Stone arsenal. Early, the “playground” of NASA , outer-space activity. The retired doctor, Army Surgeon General, patient in the hospital. I was duty officer along with another young Puerto Rican officer. The general was having problems, and as usual, certainly at Walter Reed, where so many ranking officials have died, Colonel Marx, the German commander who had probably not seen a patient or medical journal for many years, pulled his rank and ”ability”, took over. Compared to a prison execution, execution by chemicals, the General expired.
Of course there was a huge funeral at the post chapel honoring all the dignitaries, his casket drawn by horses, guns booming, the troops lined up, including Wacs from the Wac center in their pressed dresses, the General's widow on the arm of Colonel Marx, her husband's executioner. Only two officers knew the truth... and we said nothing. The truth has always been the truth whether anyone believes it or not AND, then, more so now, everyone loves a lie.
Christianity is not complicated, just tough. I would read over the acts of the Apostles into God's word and just marvel at these men... what they endured because they knew and believed the resurrected Savior. If you do not think so, do not turn on “the news” controlled by the secular news media. Those at the masquerade party, most of those filling church pews, think they are doing God a favor because of their attendance at a service. In my lifetime, the modern church (and the church is supposed to be God’s called-out believers) has made a beggar of God. Begging “supposed” believers to attend services in which God is worshiped, begging people to attend “prayer services”, begging people to teach small children in Sunday School, begging people to give of their means for God's work. The tithe is the Lords whether you give it or not. Your time is the Lords whether you give it or not. “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
(2 Timothy 3:1,2)
And so it is with the land of the free, the home of the brave, once called, “America the beautiful”, land of opportunity. We forgot so easily those 56 patriots who signed their names to the Declaration of Independence... risking everything. Even the President of the United States, does not have the American flag behind him anymore when he speaks. I understand school children do not honor the flag or pledge allegiance. Will parents, pastors, politicians, be happy when all Americans become “occupiers” with their same set of values and morals? I am told that at a local Christian college, the Harry Potter books and films, are the most popular.
God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His word is forever “settled in Heaven” (Psalm 119:89) Throughout God's book, we are instructed about those then and now, chosen for Himself. The Jewish nation, delivered from bondage and slavery in Egypt, humbled by a 40 year wilderness existence, walked in shoes of iron and brass. (Deuteronomy 33:25) It was a tough trip, just as our lives are a tough trip. Yesterdays walking will not do. (Psalm 94) And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7) God gives His own the “strength” they need. (Psalm 84:8) Just as He supplied nourishing bread each day in the wilderness, so He supplies our needs. Most heart attacks do not come from yesterday or today's concerns but concerns about tomorrow. Satan can only do what God will let him do. Every time my wonderful mother would express her worries about something, I always had the same reply, “the same God that got you this far, will get you the rest of the way” 35 million Americans have a “so-called” metabolic syndrome, they just don't care... overeat the wrong things, become addicted to poisons. Instead of eating like the cave man ate, gorge their digestive systems and minds on the wrong things. They get the idea that suicide is fast, it can be very slow... slow death, physically and spiritually.
Those of us who are chosen-elected are sealed forever. God will unseal us, in the meantime, we live in an electromagnetic universe, Everything charged, in spite of the fact we have those who demand neutralization of everything. (no gender, same-sex marriage, bathrooms, clothing, etc.) Like putting a drop of food coloring in a bathtub of water, in the equilibrium, God will recognize his own, And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, will keep you. (Philippians 4:7)
T.E.D.s
Many articles written about my world travels , covering many years of which I had only a shadow of vision in just my left eye. The public has lost its interest in history and I have learned, to my sorrow, that most people want to forget history, not inspired by others, lost on an island of self-indulgence. On the island of Guadalcanal, where, at the time I was there, many years ago, wrecked American ships still stuck up out of the Pacific. A very old man, native, survivor, of the battle of Guadalcanal, living in a “patched” Quonset hut, told me about how he lived for seven days in a ditch, he himself, thinking, part of the time, he was dead. Still there, the caves in which the Japanese kept boats which they could “fetch” from the caves and accomplish their suicide missions against the aggressors. After so many years, it was a surreal, almost haunting experience to see those boats still in the quays. 99 percent of the world's population has no idea, and most do not care about what has happened in the lives of their fellow man.
This week, Long Beach, CA, the annual meeting of TEDs. (World thinkers, intelligentsia, planners in the world of technology, entertainment, and design) The first meeting was held in 1984, the registration charge for these meetings in $7,500.00. Here, these intellectual elitists, get their heads out of the academic clouds long enough to discuss with one anther, future accomplishments of civilization. Topic for this week, the young, the wise, the undiscovered.
If I were to address this group, or the Bilderbergers, (a group of the world’s most rich and powerful... David Rockefeller, Queen of the Netherlands, Rothschilds, etc. People who control not only the money of the world, but pull the strings for world population-Eugenics) I would say, “What advice do you have for those in the “storms” of present existence? Bombardments in warfare, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, the threat of nuclear-bacteriological annihilation. WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR HUMAN BEINGS WHO NEED TEDS HELP NOW?
I speak as a totally blind, 100% disabled, service connected, medical officer, of the long ago Korean conflict. I have lived most of my life in a cocoon of blackness, never been able to attain a white cane or talking watch from the country whose uniform I wore so proudly. There are those of us, raised in absolute poverty, victims of hyperbolically poor public education, 13 in my graduating class, working for and paying my own way through 8 years of professional education, in order to pass all the boards, jump all the hurdles, to become a military officer. (The present President of the United States, could not be meet the requirements for a military commission.) To the best of my knowledge, and I have asked every specialist with whom I have come in contact, military or civilian, little or nothing has been done to improve the plight of the disabled, blind, deaf, or crippled. Just yesterday, THIS ONE SMALL SOUTHERN TOWN, a blind man, lost-dead for many days, found in a culvert, trying to get home from a grocery store. Same day, eight year old female child, wheelchair, school, dead from neglect. And so it goes, year after year, billions of dollars, taxes and public largess, going into the pockets of the greedy, not the needy, in spite of the meetings of world intelligentsia, universities filled with academics, politicians, promises, “do-gooder” associations, “poaching” for funds, preachers “moaning and groaning” about love. (the best number I can find, tens of thousands of societies (cystic fibrosis, cancer, stroke), 335,000 church congregations, 1.3 million civic clubs (Rotary, Masons, etc.) (2008) ) ALL raising money AND, I must believe, wanting to do some good then, added to all that, your tax burden, agencies of every type. For most of us, including the blind, deaf man, living alone, just trying to get some food, the young girl still trying to get an education. We never get even a taste from the buffet mountain provided by the “elitism of the normal”. I agonize abut our returning warriors, the veteran’s administration, the most inept agency of Federal Government. Without fear of contradiction, anytime I contact the BVA (blind veteran’s association) they only talk about membership fees. Both my congressman (McIntyre) my senior senator (Burr) are members of veteran’s committees. I talk with many veterans, I am well known on radio talk shows. GOVERNMENT IS NOT INTERESTED IN VETERANS.
“T”, technology, autism and disease from vaccinations, an accumulation of health problems from poison in the water systems,(fluoride-chloride) insulting the body with GMO animal and plant “foods”.
“E”, entertainment, movies, television, just clever propaganda. Strategic attempts with propaganda before both WWI and WWII, through available media, at that time, the world was propagandized. Propaganda is not compatible with freedom. Hitler said, “he could make hell seem like heaven.” His chief of propaganda Herman Goebbels said, “with propaganda, he could male a square hole round.” Karl Marx said, “the real battleground, realignment of history.” Most American history books have changed. The secular humanists discarding all boundaries. When you see the United Nations, Islam as a peaceful religion, acceptance of same-sex marriage, abortion as fairness. IF, the church goes along with these, you know you are at the end of the road.
George Orwell, writer of 1984, Animal Farm, once a communist, writer of communist propaganda. He said that “the United Nations, Madison Avenue, and the church were going down the same path.”
“D”,design, we live in a physical world, but ours is a spiritual existence. No one can study the design of anything, the world and everything in it, without realizing there is a consequence to disobedience-physical or spiritual. You cannot defy the laws of nature nor the laws of God.
In political correctness, the DESIGN “make the insane, seem sane” We are using this in world protests, the “occupiers movement” If yo do not agree with this, you are considered a homo-phobe or racist and as Nikolai Lenin said, “truth is bourgeois, lying a sign of intelligence.”