Wasteland

 

 January 25, 2016              #1803

      

Wasteland    

                                                                 

Turn off the television
It is not necessary for relevance. And it is a deadly place to rest the mind. Its pervasive banality, sexual innuendo, and God-ignoring values have no ennobling effects on the soul. It kills the spirit. It drives God away. It quenches prayer. It blanks out the Bible. It cheapens the soul. It destroys spiritual power. It defiles almost everything. It is unnecessary for most of you, and it is spiritually deadly for all of you. (John Piper, "Preaching as Worship: Meditations on Expository Exultation," Trinity Journal 16, 1995)



Television, the Great Life-Waster
Television is one of the greatest life-wasters of the modern age. And, of course, the Internet is running to catch up, and may have caught up. You can be more selective on the Internet, but you can also select worse things with only the Judge of the universe watching. TV still reigns as the great life-waster. The main problem with TV is not how much smut is available, though that is a problem. Just the ads are enough to sow fertile seeds of greed and lust, no matter what program you're watching. The greater problem is banality. A mind fed daily on TV diminishes. Your mind was made to know and love God. Its facility for this great calling is ruined by excessive TV. The content is so trivial and so shallow that the capacity of the mind to think worthy thoughts withers, and the capacity of the heart to feel deep emotions shrivels. (John Piper, "Don't Waste Your Life" 2003)

"I have kept my feet from every evil path, so that I might obey Your Word." Psalm 119:101 

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This Writer, Speaking at a youth conference, Southern Baptist Convention 1955 said, "If Satan had wanted to design something to make children just as mean-sinful as possible he would have designed a television set" So enticing, addictive, this sewer of decadence has invaded almost every American home... seducing young people into its "coma" of indolence.  I understand that most children spend many hours a day just watching the trash and why not? They watch their parents, TV Lounge Lizards spend their good hours in this waste land

Do you understand why murder, sexual perversion and every known sin of decadence, how this nation has become so profane ?

There are so many examples I could give about the extravagances of television watching:

Adult-Intelligent men addicted to watching millionaire sports figures running up and down an athletic field.

Adult-Intelligent women living their life fantasies via soap opera characters (Most of whom are well known sexual pervert who have nothing to offer the world but their looks and voices) AND, if the desert of television were not enough, comes the computer and the snare of the internet, AND, if the sewer of the internet were not enough, now comes all of the temptation-decadence  of the ages wrapped up into a small hand held instrument called the cell phone. And, parents can not understand why their children have become so irascible and unconcerned about everything decent, Why the prisons are full, Why the court houses-half way houses are full.

Most education comes through the eyes, light impulses gathered by the retina of the eyes and transferred through the optic nerves of the eyes, through the brain and registering- interpretation at the back of the brain. You do learn some things through hearing-smell other senses. This blind man eye doctor reminds you to thank your blessed lord for your sight. Guard what you see and limit through the righteousness of a Holy God . The seducing attractions of the world which Satan so easily provides.

Have you noticed that the American dumbed-down society-civilization has become so addicted  the television that every fast food restaurant, every health care office, EVEN the garage where you get the car repaired has a T.V. set running non-stop . As I have told so many parents, Satan wants your children and he has found that he can seduce-captivate your children, Just as he has done with adults by offering to them every carnal thought seductive to the heart of man. " As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is               Proverbs 23:7

#1802

Conscience-Technology and Common Sense                                      # 1802  Jan 21, 2016

Did you ever hear the dream of Gutenberg?

(George Everard, "The Importance of Reading" 1885)

Did you ever hear the dream of Gutenberg? He was just about to put forward his invention of the printing press, and it seemed to him as if an angel came and spoke to him:

"John Gutenberg, you have made your name immortal--but at what a cost! Think well what you are doing! The ungodly are many more than the godly. Your work will but multiply their blasphemies and lies. You have uncovered the bottomless pit--and a swarm of seducing spirits shall henceforth come out and turn earth into Hell. Oh think of millions of souls corrupted by your achievement. See the poison of fiends distilled into the souls of boys and girls, making them old in the experience of sin! See that mother weeping over her depraved son, and that grey-haired father hiding his face from his daughter's shame. Destroy your press, for it shall be the pander of blasphemy and lust! Destroy it, and forget it! Forbear, by multiplying the resources of the wicked, to make yourself through all ages the partaker of their crimes!"

We are all aware that the dream has had a very sorrowful fulfillment. Amidst the vast amount of printed matter sent forth daily, it is to be feared that the evil sadly exceeds the good. None can tell how the minds of multitudes are corrupted by the publications that they peruse. Therefore, my friend, be careful what you read!

Give heed as to what you read. If you knew that on the table there were poisoned dishes, as well as food that was wholesome and nourishing--you would be on your guard, and touch nothing about which you were doubtful. Just so, exercise wise forethought as to the books and magazines you take up and peruse.

It is true that "as a man thinks in his heart, so is he." But it is no less true that as a man reads--so very much will he think. Mind, memory, conscience, imagination, will, affection--all will be influenced by that which you read.

The questionable novel, with its picturing of the worst passions of the soul, as is too often the case--ought not to be devoured as if it would leave no bad impression behind. I know quite well, that we all need recreation, but it is not genuine recreation to spend hour after hour pouring over that which is trashy, nonsensical, and worse--and will only unfit you for anything higher and holier.

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You may want to read Miller's superb 2 page article, "Books Worth While".

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Feel free to forward these gems to others who may be encouraged or profited by them!

            21st Century Life is a bottom less ocean of Technology. Your Blind Writer, Veteran of The Korean War Era was for many years an Army Eye Doctor with s field Grade Officer rank . I studied Eye Development in Children By the age of 5 there is enough bi-lateral muscle control so a child can read... All of the knowledge of the Ages. This Writers passion was books. One can recover from most diseases, Even Disabilities but, you never recover from poverty. I n books you can escape and in your mind seek and find anything even the eternal

            Like all things, always the other side human beings  waste 4.4 billion hours each year viewing pornography. by way of the eyes the optic nerve system which goes through the brain giving sight at the back of the head, seeing is a learning process. I still remember, 60 years ago, the first pornography magazine I ever saw  ... Shown to this young boy by an adult. But, Just think of all the great books I have read studied collected. I have 5000 wonderful first editions here in my house I can not see or read them but I do enjoy feeling them. thanks to Gutenberg and others  I can still see my grandmother reading the large print testament Which I gave her. Thanks to Alexander Gramm bell and Others my ancestors could talk by phone  with family members who they seldom saw. Much Evil comes from the Telephone and the Television, The Computer, The Micro Wave Oven Even The motor vehicle. But think of the good. With empty hands you grab for the good', Rid your hands of the trash your conscience - common sense knows the difference And, God knows and Cares

Happy New Year ...Quo Vadis

#1801 Dec 31 2015

Dec 31,  2015                                                                                             #1801

           

                                           Happy New Year....Quo Vadis

  Follow! Follow! I would follow Jesus! Anywhere, everywhere, I would follow on!- Hymn I would follow Jesus.

 "Jesus said unto him: Follow Me!" John 21:19 

the different phases of His Life. We have heard many of His words. Now it remains only for us to follow Him. The outcome of seeing and knowing Jesus--should be holy living and doing. The last day of the year suggests also the same duty.

Who is satisfied with his life as it appears in retrospect? The past, however blotted, must go as it is; we cannot change it, and we need not waste time in regretting. But the new year is before us, and if we would make that better than the stained past, it must be by following Christ more closely.

If you are as rich as the queen of England , Bill Gates Or Donald Trump at the end of life, Clinical Death, You can not buy one more minute

Whether many years pass, or even this past year, you can not erase one cruel word or one callous action that did affect someone else nor, can you change one word or action directed at you. it is all a matter of forgiveness...The beauty of Life is the matter of  giving god, The Giver of Life(No Scientist has ever been able to produce life...Plant or Animal), God gave his son AND His Son gave His Life to Redeem we mere mortals from a life of sin and rejection I can this as a health professional If You Want healing , Learn to forgive. One Great Spinal Surgeon told me, "Most back pain can be cured by the simple act of forgiving"

This Writer Left  organized religion years ago because I had so much trouble with pretenders and performers Jesus just wants me to follow him. I have so much trouble with the generalized, mostly American Montra of calling most people not jewish-muslim-Buddhist Or some other "religion" Christians . The Word Christian means Christ Like and I Know very few church members who are Christ like . Most of us Can not even Imagine the Holiness of God. Most of us can not measure up to the "Ideals" of the truly surrendered Christ-like life

In the Famous Play " A Street Car Named Desire" The Heroine Blanche Dubois Said, Before the final Curtain, " That She Owed so much to Strangers

In Traveling the World, My Life, in many places , I am sorry to  report to you That often Strangers shown This Blind Man more Empathy-Consideration-Kindness Than people on the street where I live, Even my Fellow Man at the Church house , Court House or Even Family Houses

The Christian Life is a relationship with god, real not conjured by any activity. Things and people that have impressed my life came mostly from strangers or people that i will never know . I will never forget that poor-shack  Church House, in the woods where, during the blight of Slavery , black human beings met to worship the God of us all I still remember as a child , 80 years ago , The black people around our farm ( there were few cars even for white people) walking long miles to their church...even in bad weather. I still remember seeing migrants on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan ( Carrying everything they owned in large sacks on their backs,) dressed in rags, children barefoot on an icy road fell on their faces when the call for prayer came from a mosque AND, Thank God, I still have a memory of my own father going early to our country church to build fires or open windows, winter and summer for the comfort of our fellow church people I am so glad that I have seen real worship which is truly following one worthy of worship. 

We are not stuck where we start I rejoice That I know Salvation. I Take Joy in Knowing that the Real, The Best, Is Ahead. We Do not live a life of checklists Churchianity, Certain things you do : Certain things you do not do. We do not live a life of "Bell Hop" Religion, Calling on God when you need him. True Christianity is not complicated, But Difficult. Our Redemption is a gift. following Jesus gives us the joys of eternal life now as well as later. So, Happy New Year, Quo ...Vadis (Where are you going?) : This Year, Any Year, I can Attest, You may Fail Him, But He Will Never Fail You

Reducing Jesus to Accommodate the World

 #1800

(Christmas 2015)

"Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 'Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, 'God with us.'" (Matthew 1:22)

This writer, on one of his three trips to the "Holy Land", spent Christmas Eve, 1965, in Bethlehem. This was, for this Christian farm-boy, the experience of a lifetime.

Arrows from a bow always fly in the same direction. The Christian heart is only softened by the knowledge that the skies of Bethlehem were very much the same on my night there as they were on the night that our blessed Lord first breathed life there. It was very cold. The stars were unusually bright (this blind writer had some eyesight at that time). Another writer, Victor Hugo, said, “If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness.”

God's word tells us that just as He brought something-ness from nothingness in Creation with oratorical elegance (probably millions of angels in song), He brought the light of the world, Jesus, into being by God putting on a tent of human flesh. The light of the world had come to live among us.  

The next day, Christmas day, 1965, my guide led me to the church of the nativity (The church of the nativity is built "supposedly" over the birthplace of the greatest event in the history of the world. I had to crawl through a small opening in order to enter the church. The great doors of the church had been nailed shut many years ago, because Muslim hordes had ridden their horses inside the church in order to desecrate it. Islamist's still control all of the areas around this town; just 5 miles from Jerusalem. At one time, many Christians lived on the West Bank. Most have fled to Australia and Canada. One young, sleepy Arab soldier, guarded the church). I went down the steps to the cave- the stable where the animals were kept. A few other Christian pilgrims were there on this Christmas morning. I joined them in weeping over the lowly place where my Savior was born.

Thinking all the time about the palaces and fine homes which this world traveler had seen all around the world, mostly in countries where there is no pretension of Christianity, such as India (where in Islamabad I visited a Maharajah palace), where even the walls were covered with precious stones, I thought of my own humble birthplace- a clapboard house on a dirt road without heat, running water, or any of the conveniences of modern life; like this cave, on a dirt road. Surely, some comfort should be taken by Christians in the knowledge that those who have the most things in this life have the least. Remember, the first to whom God announced the birth of His Son, were the poorest of the poor, lowly shepherds. Shepherds were not even allowed to enter the temple, or give testimony in court. In a land of water scarcity, most of these shepherds had never had their first bath. They smelled. Their only articles of clothing were filthy. Yet, God invited them to hear the first cries of God in this universe... the cries of a baby.

When you have the new birth of Jesus in your heart, you will never hear the sound of a baby the same way again. When you have the new birth of Jesus in your heart, mind, and soul, you will never look upon the poor, disabled, and lost the same way again. Is it not significant that these lowly shepherds did not reduce Jesus to accommodate the world around them? On that day, they did not care what the world thought about them. Rather, they went forth to tell the world what they had seen. Can you even imagine how scared they were when God presented, with great "fanfare", the millions, perhaps billions, of the heavenly hosts singing about God's Son who had come to bring light into a world of darkness?

Of course, Herod wanted to kill Jesus. I will never understand the sorrow of the mother's who lost their son's in Herod's attempt to kill Jesus. BUT, God is boss. He is in charge. I have never understood why God insisted on the Israelite's, who left the wilderness and crossed the Jordan on dry land to claim the promised land directed those chosen to inherit it, to kill all of the seven tribes who lived there- including their children. BUT, every time a nation or an individual refuses to follow the instructions of God, we live to regret it. 

Someone asked philosopher/ writer Bertrand Russell, "Why do you not believe in God?" Russell said he had not been given enough evidence. From the history of the world ("Don't touch that tree"), and every other instruction from God found in His book, we have the proof of what happens when nations, or men, do not obey God. You, and those you love, live to regret it. 

In this writer's lifetime (85 years), I have seen what happens with people, and nation's, when they do not obey God. We have now reached a place in the "so-called" Christmas observance that the world refers to the nativity scenes (manger with a baby, Mary and Joseph, and shepherds) as the negativity scene. Atheism, communism, and modernism wants Christianity erased from the public square. Unbelievers want Christians "in the closet". They want the Christmas message restricted to the church house. 

The tragedy of the Christian message of Christ's birth being restricted to the church house, lawn of the courthouse, entertainment festivity of the schoolhouse, or perhaps the spending and spreeing of your house, is that the name of Jesus is not glorified. The heartbreak of a real Christian is the pretending, performing bearers of Christ's name (Christians) just playing games with God... even the birth date of His "only Begotten Son". We know from every historical and scientific fact that Jesus was born in September. However, the Catholic church (as was the case with Easter) took on the pagan celebration of these events. Would God allow a Christmas tree in His worship sanctuary? Jeremiah 10: 2-4 says, "Thus saith the LORD, 'Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.'" Even pew-warmers, and modernistic pastors, should be ashamed of the getting and giving that goes on in the name of Christmas... borrowing money to buy things that people do not want... spending and spreeing, partying and participating, with the paganism of the world. Please tell this old man, who observes the Lord's table every day of his life, why the Christian does not follow the simple instruction's of the Lord to remember Him, and His sacrifice at His table?

God, help real Christians to remember Jesus as He instructed. Not in the profanity of a Holy Day turned holiday- reducing Jesus to accommodate the world.

The Power, Grace and Mercy of Our July 4th

#1757

"The same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him!" Romans 10:12 

This verse is full of precious consolation. As "Lord over all" He is able to enrich others. He possesses an inexhaustible stock of spiritual blessings, by which He can "be rich unto all who call upon Him."

Note the objects of His enriching grace: "Unto all who call upon Him."

He enriches the guilty one, with the pardon of all his sins, however numerous and flagrant. 1 John 1:7; Acts 13:38.

He enriches those condemned by the law, with deliverance and justification. Acts 13:39; Romans 5:1; 8:1.

He enriches the unrighteous and defiled, with cleansing grace and regenerating power, to make them "new creatures in Christ Jesus." 2 Corinthians 5:17.

He enriches the outcast and abandoned, with adoption into His redeemed family, and all its precious privileges.

He is a rich, full, free, and inexhaustible fountain!

What more can be said?

He enriches . . .
  the ignorant--with wisdom,
  the weak--with strength,
  the fearful--with courage,
  the depressed--with consolation,
  the soldier of the cross--with armor, success, and conquest,
  the tempted and tried--with support and a way of escape,
  the afflicted and bereaved--with strength according to the day,
  the dying--with the hope of immortality, and afterwards with Heaven itself!

He can make all grace to abound to all His people!

"The LORD gives grace and glory. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly!" Psalm 84:11 

(Above taken from daily Grace Gems subscription. We have published Grace Gems for JUNE, 2014 in one file!

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Feel free to forward these gems to others who may be encouraged or profited by them!)

Addition Dr. Morris: This writer cannot imagine any human being, saved or unsaved, not being blessed at any time in life by reading the Psalms, God's "Song Book" to us.

Perhaps Psalm 84 is my favorite. This world traveler was in a small, clapboard church on the island of Samoa (pacific ocean) in the brightness and clarity of a Lord's day. As with so many days, I was stumbling through a time of discouragement, despair and despondency with my blindness. The little church was filled with barefoot natives, they were so excited about the blind stranger in their midst. When I had come into the church, they were singing, in their language, "What A Friend We Have In Jesus", I knew this was the hymn because I could recognize the piano music (This was my grandmother's favorite hymn). A woman with a high-pitched voice (I think she was a missionary) came down the aisle to greet me and she said in English, Psalm 84:5, "Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee." That day, as this day, my life was changed because I knew that all the strength I needed for any minute, any day, any year would come from God.

This year, Mt. Olive University honored me for my philanthropy to them. I said at the occasion, "You look at a totally blind man and think of disability. My greatest disability was not the poverty in which I was reared, the struggle for my education, my military experience (a 100% disabled, totally blind, medical officer veteran of the Korean War era) but rather, my greatest disability has been the lack of encouragement. Particularly, by family members, associates and those who the world would think would have concern but, as General Colin Powell said long ago, the lost word in most vocabularies is the word concern. I think this is particularly true when it comes to veterans and the disabled. Do not think for one second that I am playing the victim card, my strength is in Him, AND, as he has reminded me over and over He is all that I need. However, it is so sad, that in a world where 57 Million innocent babies have been killed, where we pay taxes to support abortion clinics ($500 Billion collectively last year) and where we pay taxes for our government drop bombs on innocent mothers and babies all over the world. There are so few disabled people at the church house, in the restaurants, or any other place you normal people like to go. One restaurant owner, actually said to me, we do not like the disabled here because it makes our other customers feel bad.

My hard working tax paying God fearing, great hymn singing Daddy's birthday was on July 4th. He was always working too hard to celebrate his own birthday. Only those reared in the impoverished tobacco fields of eastern NC, 84 years ago when I was a child can know about poverty. My passport has been stamped in 157 countries in the world. I have never known worse poverty than that of my childhood in eastern NC. And yet, politicians-pastors-poets actually talk about illegals doing the hard work that Americans will not do.

On this July 4th, 2014, please remember this if you forget everything else I have ever said from my platform or written in any form of communication. "In the American experience, next to slavery, the greatest shame of this nation has been its treatment of disabled veterans and the handicapped."

Our fellow citizens may forget and not care about the disabled, the disenfranchised, the discouraged, but, there is nothing between us and our Savior. In that old church, in which I was reared, built in 1874, I can still hear my ancestors, now mostly in Heaven, singing that old hymn, "Nothing Between".

1

Nothing between my soul and the Savior,
Naught of this world’s delusive dream;
I have renounced all sinful pleasure;
Jesus is mine, there’s nothing between. Nothing between my soul and the Savior,
So that His blessed face may be seen;
Nothing preventing the least of His favor,
Keep the way clear! Let nothing between.

2

Nothing between, like worldly pleasure;
Habits of life, though harmless they seem,
Must not my heart from Him e’er sever;
He is my all, there’s nothing between.

3

Nothing between, like pride or station;
Self-life or friends shall not intervene;
Though it may cost me much tribulation,
I am resolved; there’s nothing between.

4

Nothing between, e’en many hard trials,
Though the whole world against me convene;
Watching with prayer and much self-denial,
I’ll triumph at last, with nothing between.

Source: http://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/372#ixzz36PRuZFvh

More Can Be Less

#1740

¹ (A Psalm of David.) Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.

² For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.

³ Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

⁴ Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Today's news, our focus, floods in Texas, drought in California, Iraq, fighting a war over again were thousands of young Americans were already killed. NOW, we talk about something in which I proposed in the beginning of the conflict; divide the nation of Iraq into three sections- three religious groups, and then, as has been for hundreds of years, they can continue fighting one another. Their Islamic religion, they like to kill one another. Next, it was announced that Greek hospitals are running out of anesthesia (the last time their was a lack of anesthesia, was during the American Civil War). 

When will Americans, land of the free- home of the brave, realize, that we are being manipulated. Led around by a ring in our noses. 

What part of the word "slave" do you not understand? The newest scam by our federal government (19 trillion dollar debt) "we will take your money from your investment accounts, especially mutual funds that are not performing, and invest it for you).( http://www.prisonplanet.com/economist-government-preparing-to-seize-401k-pensions.html )

For years, many Liberals have proffered the idea that large retirement funds such as state employee retirement funds, should be taken over by the federal government (The end justifies the means, the communist rally call for "equity"). With a national entitlement debt more closely approaching 215 trillion, as in all communist countries put everyone on the public dole... Everyone from the janitor to the CEO, a retirement fund of each of social security. This is what we are facing in the 21st century, after years of hardworking, tax paying, god fearing, productive citizens, building a super power, to wind up as serfs of the state. 

Life in America, as in so much of the world, has become a matter of control, by a hostile government. We love our nation, its constitution, its traditions, the memories of our ancestors who built it, but we hate was has happened to our government... Local, state, federal. 

Prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon said, "Good health is a gift from God, but sickness can be a greater blessing". The Bible tells us that when we are weak, then we are strong. "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness" ( 2 Corinthians 12:9). This writer has attended the great West Minister Chapel in London many times, a place were Spurgeon preached. You could never convince him what has happened to the church... Those inside the church rejoicing that they are so clean, separated, not mixed up with the dirty people outside the building. None of we church members, Christians, willing or ready to admit that we too were rescued from the rotten sin and train wrecks of life. Jesus came to save those who are lost... The vile and ugly, the sick and dirty. 

The government spends $15b on drug rehabilitation alone...10% effective. Jesus came to cleanse all our addictions (Addiction means surrendered to the gods). Many of us inside the church house, who may not have surrendered to the gods of chemicals- drinks- debauchery, how so many surrendered to the idles of popularity, promiscuity- patronage- and certainly pretending. We want to be different, say that we are different, but in conversation- dress- habits, we are no different than those who profess zero religiosity. 

These cloudy- sightless eyeballs weep in the realization that we live in a world that cares very little for any thing. We go to the polls, and vote for politicians who we know are no better than criminals already incarcerated. 

It is like the well known fact of physiology, we must ingest minerals in order to have strong bones ( The three most important minerals; magnesium, calcium, potassium). If we do not ingest these minerals in our food intake, then the body will take these minerals from our bones. Leading to osteoporosis (fragile bones). We are eating our young... Those not aborted, just entertained, not educated, in the school-room of life. Most young people are not prepared to survive. 

The abnormal has become so common place and is now accepted as normal ( Lying- cheating- stealing- abortion- anything goes sex). 

Everything is about the bottom line. From business to personal relationships. From the church house, to the school house, to the court house, and very often to your own house, everyone thinks they are immune from sin. The only medicine God provides you for sin, is the Gospel. The Gospel is the only solution for your, or the worlds problems... It is not the very popular 21st century philosophy- prescription of political correctness. 

Most of us, especially the disabled, do the best we cant. I wonder if anyone can even imagine what it is like for an old soldier, living alone, to get up, get dressed, get on with another day. I was in a fast food restaurant with my assistants, an older women whom I had never met, did not know, came over and told me I did not shave well that morning. 

Another day, another man told me that my socks did not match. 

When we will we learn to focus our thoughts on the important matters of living? 

Asking For Help

#1738

I am part of the "Fellowship of the Unashamed."

The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line.

The decision has been made. I am a disciple of

Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow down,

back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present

makes sense, and my future is secure.

I am finished and done with low living, sight walking,

small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams,

chintzy giving, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need pre-eminence, prosperity, position,

promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I now live by

presence, lean by faith, love by patience,

lift by prayer, and labor by power. My pace

is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven, my

road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few,

my Guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought,

compromised, deterred, lured away, turned back,

diluted, or delayed.

I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the

presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy,

ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander

in the maze of mediocrity.

I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I must go until

Heaven returns, give until I drop, preach until all know,

and work until He comes. And when He comes to get

His own, He will have no problem recognizing me.

My colors will be clear.

#1721

"This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.

This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.

This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

All around the neighborhood, I'm going to let it shine.

All around the neighborhood, I'm going to let it shine.

All around the neighborhood, I'm going to let it shine.

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Hide it under a bushel? No! I'm going to let it shine.

Hide it under a bushel? No! I'm going to let it shine.

Hide it under a bushel? No! I'm going to let it shine.

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

Don't let Satan [blow] it out! I'm going to let it shine.

Don't let Satan [blow] it out! I'm going to let it shine.

Don't let Satan [blow] it out! I'm going to let it shine.

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine."

How long would you keep hoping to find a missing wallet? A week? A month?

And even if you found it, would you expect your money to still be inside?

One man got an extraordinary surprise when his wallet came back to him after 14 years missing — and stuffed with more cash than before.

“First I thought that someone was joking with me so I went to check whether the money was real,” Croatian man Ivica Jerkovic told the Croatian outlet 24 sata on Friday.

It was.

“It was the best greeting for Easter!” Jerkovic said.

His wallet came to the post office in a plain package, and the sender did not reveal their identity, but Jerkovic has a theory.

He believes that when he lost his wallet 14 years ago — stuffed with 2,000 German marks, or roughly $1,200, for home repairs — someone who desperately needed the money found it.

“I believe that this money saved him and for years he was calculating how much he should return to me,” Jerkovic said. “Otherwise, I don’t know why he would keep the wallet for all those years!”

When Jerkovic received his long-lost wallet last week, it contained 1,500 Swiss francs, or about $1,530.

 Jerkovic praised the mystery person who returned his wallet for their care in keeping track of the interest.

“I call on him to contact me,” Jerkovic said. “He is the best personal banker in Croatia.”

This writer was on a photography safari in Botswana, Africa. Earlier, I had purchased in the Sudan a most remarkable ruby stone in a gold setting. I thought it was valuable, but until I returned home and had it appraised, I did not know how valuable.

Anyway, I had put the ring in my camera bag. One morning, my guide said to me " Doctor, I found this ring near your tent, do you think it is yours, did you lose it?" Someway, somehow, in taking one of my cameras out of the bag I had misplaced the ring, and the guide had found it. Of course, it meant nothing to him and I thanked him profoundly. He did not realize how much money he had held in his hand.

And, so it is with our lives. In the marvelous book The Godfather. The last words of the Godfather before he died, "Life is so beautiful." We spend our lives thinking that waxed fruit, artificial flowers, veneer on cheap wood, is beautiful. There is nothing the creator designed that can be duplicated. Satan always pays off with counterfeit.

It is so refreshing to find human-beings who are good for goodness sake... People who want to do good because it makes them feel good. Such as returning to someone something that they've lost... Whether valuable or invaluable. The genuineness of life is good, whether from the smell of fresh fruit, fresh flowers, or even the yapping of a puppy. Why should the world be consumed by greed, whether a politician, business man, or even a family member. Children who ate their meals their entire life with their feet under the same table, often get so insanely grieved-greedy toward one another when their hard working parents estate is settled. When you get my age, eighty-five, like the Godfather, you realize just how beautiful a life with honesty can be.

Several years ago, I gave to one of my cousins a fruit bowl that had come from his great grandmothers dining room table. The beautiful bowl had come down to me and I wanted someone in my family to have it. I so remember waxed fruit in the bowl when I was a small child. She had said to me, "Thomas, the fruit in that bowl is just for looking, not for eating." I still remember the owner of a furniture factory saying to me, "I can take any cheap wood and with a veneer, make it look like expensive wood." I still remember, like a fool, standing in line with other Buddhists, in a temple in Sri Lanka to look at a tooth that supposedly come out of Buddha's mouth. It is so easy to be fooled "fooled by fakery." Please god, here at the sunset of my life, let me know the joy of real things, real people. Not waxed figures like those I saw in Madame Tussauds Museum.

Broken

#1799

Only a broken heart!

(George Everard, "A Meditation for the Close of the Year" 1882)

"The LORD is close to the broken-hearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Psalm 34:18

Only a broken heart can receive a bruised and crucified Savior!

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." Psalm 51:17 

"He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds." Psalm 147:3 

God deliver me from anyone who has never experienced brokenness.  God save me from anyone who has never needed a savior.  Please God, help me to forgive those who lie, cheat, steal and do not think they will ever come under your judgment.  For those of us who have been deceived, defrauded, we can only forgive.  We cannot forget.

The disabled do not like to be victims, and yet we are victims.  In a world of make believe, pretending and performing, at the church house, at the school house, and most certainly at the court house.  It is hard to forgive those who are winners in life's lottery...who were blessed with a heritage of wealth/good looks/good health.  How many disabled/handicap people do you find in your church...the very place they should be welcome.  How many disabled/handicap people do you find in your parks/concert halls/civic clubs/educational advantages (meetings, self help groups), they are left out, not considered.

When I was a young boy, never athletic, I was never chosen for the ball team.  Later, having jumped through every hoop swam against every adversity (poverty, poor educational background) I had worked my way through 8 years of University Education, AND, then, Draft Doctor's Law, went into the Military...blind since. 

One day, two cousins came to visit me, one wanted to go to a certain restaurant where his deceased wife had eaten the last time we were together.  The three of us, grown, successful men received very poor service at the restaurant (Middle Of The Island, Wrightsville Beach, NC).  When this old blind veteran went up to pay the bill, I said to the Owner/Manager, "why did we get such poor service?" he said, "I do not encourage disabled people to come here, you make our normal customers uncomfortable".  

Ambushed

#1798

"My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus!" Philippians 4:19

We have here the promise that every possible need will be provided for. The Lord of earth and Heaven has such boundless treasures at His command, that it is impossible that we can expect too much. Not all we wish, not all that we may think pleasant or desirable--but all that the only-wise God discerns to be truly needful and profitable for us--that will He give.

The supply assured to the believer, comprises that which is needful for all that concerns our present life--and all that is essential for the support and growth of spiritual life in the soul.

As to this present life, God supplies our needs. And yet by withholding much that is for our comfort, He humbles and proves His children. He often keeps them on very slender fare!

What then have the people of God a right to expect?

Sometimes He may bestow a rich abundance of temporal blessings. He did so in the case of Abraham, and Joseph, and Solomon, and many others.

Still more frequently He will give His children amply enough for their daily need. He blesses their basket and their store. He gives a sufficiency, so that they can live a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty.

Yet sometimes it is otherwise. He is training His children, and He puts them in the school of affliction. He sends them thorns and briars, and sharp trials. And this often in the shape of need, or insufficient means for meeting the requirements of themselves or their families.

Ah, do not repine if this is so! There is a purpose beneath it. There is divine love, though there is the lack of food or money.

"Behind a frowning Providence
 He hides a smiling face!" 

This writer, Doctor, world traveler, totally blind veteran, in speaking with the unsaved about the condition of their soul, the most often answer...which I can well understand having seen the miseries of this world/experiencing the daily challenge of disability, "how could a God of love so inflict/abuse/impoverish so many people?"

This is the question of the ages. We must depend on the sovernity of God.  The older I get, 85, the more I understand that he is "Boss"...that he is in charge.

He loves you better than he loves the stars he threw into space, he loves you better than he loves the moon.  The moon was not created in his image, you were!  When you reach the age 50, you should realize that you are probably at your best.  The best you will ever look/ever feel/your at the top of your mental ability.  From there on, it is all down hill, and old age is not for sissies.  To whom does the unsaved go with their needs? 

Nowhere in God's word could I find that we are promised a "bed of roses"/ease while on this earth.  We are told that life would be hard, very few enjoy the life of the rich and famous. 

Remember, of the 3 million Jewish slaves who left Egypt, only 2 (Joshua & Caleb) reached the promised land.  The rest, died in the wilderness because of their unbelief.  There were places where Jesus could not do many miracles because of unbelief.  (Matthew 13:58)

The children of Israel had been delivered, saved from the Egyptians, had seen and heard God at Mt. Sinai, picked up manna from Heaven and, God seeking to umbel them as today's church members were only interested in just pretending and performing. 

It is not just the Atheist follower of a false religion, hypocrites, "ambushed" by the world, flesh, devil.  God sent his most precious possession, his only Son, to put on a tent of human flesh and dwell among us.  How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation (Hebrews 2:3).  The world, your associates, your family will conjure everything possible to defeat  you.  Don't get ambushed by the "cares of this world" and the deceitfulness of riches.  (Mark 4:19)  Those of us who have been chosen for life here on this earth who, in health or un health, wealth or poverty, have been given the gift of love for one another and then, at last, the never ending joy of Heaven.