#1856 On Stage

On Stage

Saint Michael Archangel,
defend us in battle,
be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil;
may God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,
by the power of God, cast into hell
Satan and all the evil spirits
who prowl through the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.

In our country community where the schoolhouse and the church house were the chief interests in our lives, before the time of power lines certainly television and radio which could not have been imagined, this was 80 years ago, I heard one old man in our community say, "My greatest enjoyment in life is going out to the schoolhouse and seeing the young children here in our community dressed up in crepe paper pretending to be flowers-animals-make-believe creatures I  know that their minds are working."

And so it is, with all of us mere mortals our brains are wired to pretend, to have imagination and, it's not just America's children I have seen children, beautiful creatures of many skin colors making many language sounds, all over the world, pretending and imagining as they played with one another we are supposed to be made in the image of God.  Words are important God spoke and nothingness became somethingness why cannot family members-neighbors-nations talk to one another and solve problems.  Today, we observe the 71st anniversary of our nation dropping an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki.  Just think, 70,000 human-beings evaporated in just a few seconds.  Most of these people had nothing to do with warfare and the whole idea of killing 250,000 people in two cities was totally unnecessary.  Japan was already defeated there was just some pretention going on both sides.  A few words from either side could have saved so many lives...life, God's greatest creation.  So, August 1945, America stopped pretending, US lost all decency, the Christian message, and we were at one time a Christian nation it is better to have evil done to you that to do evil: it is better to be robbed than to be a robber.

This writer has two biological brothers we put our feet under the same eating table in our wonderful parents home.  I have lived here in my  house for over 40 years neither of these two brothers, both younger than me, their wives or their children, have ever been in this house.  They got mad with me about something many years ago and I doubt that either one of them could tell you what it was about.  I certainly do not know.  But, at least, they do not pretend about anything they just decided to leave me out of their lives AND, God told me to forgive but he did not tell me to forget.

In this new bizarro age in which we live, with the gay agenda, with the insanity of same sex marriage, the lunacy of transgendered bathrooms AT LEAST, most homosexuals have left the closet, are out in the open, brave enough, to no longer pretend to be something they are not.  In my youth, gay people had to pretend about everything and most gay people, with whom I have talked, had a very low opinion of church people because Christians did not have the courage to live the Christian life.  They were just pretending, also.  Yet, the Christians condemned the gay lifestyle it seems that everyone, white-black-gay-straight-educated-ignorant-rich-poor-young-old-etc,etc everyone just pretending.  Old people color hair, use plastic surgery to remove age lines, spend a tremendous amount of money for every type chemical-substance to imbibe or rub on attempting to look-act young.  Youth, will lie-cheat-steal in order to gain the sophistication of the elderly.  Young people will risk jail to use a fake id card for entrance to some clubs.  Most young people spend their college years, interneting instead of getting a good education because they are convinced that it is who you know, not what you know that will bring you success.  "Success for most young people means money, clubs, electronic toys, moving in the right circles, etc."

I think so much of this pretending, the attitude of fooling others started with Dale Carnegie and his book "How to Win Friends and Influence People".  He told us right up front, that truth does not matter what matters is reaching your goal, whatever it takes.  Remember the communist myth, "the end justifies the means".

The criminal defense lawyer will dress up his criminal client for an appearance before a courthouse jury.  He does not want his criminal client to look like a criminal:  clothing-designed haircut: looking acting acceptable will help convince a jury.  One federal judge said that the accused court criminal will have his pastor make an appearance for him.

There are still a few places left in this world where you cannot pretend, you must be real. This old-blind veteran has been listening to the Olympics.  Olympians cannot pretend they must be real. And so it in warfare, warriors must be real, on the front lines you cannot pretend to be brave there are no air conditioned fox-holes on the front lines.  "Christian warriors" want comfortable-air conditioned fox-holes.  Christian patriots are just pretending when they tell you they want to win the world to Christ and to liberty.

Holiness is goodness.  The French author, Alexis de Tocqueville ,who visited America and wrote about America in 1840, about the time of the birth of my great-grandfathers, said that America was great because America was good.  America is no longer good, and most Americans, including this American, just spoiled and rotten.  There is no pride, orneriness, judgementalism, and all the other rotten sins among my family-associates-neighbors-etc, I HAVE IT ALL.  As the Apostle Paul said, "I am chief of sinners" 1 Timothy 1:15.  How dare we call ourselves Christian: CHRIST-LIKE.  We have all been busy pretending, smiling at sin, chucking at abuse, tolerating every satanic bleb on the screen.  It is time for all of us to leave the stage and get real.

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

Facebook: http://www.DrThomasMorris.com
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(910)-251-6218
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(Dr. Morris is a totally blind 100% disabled service connected veteran, 8 around the world trips, passport stamped in 157 countries)

#1853 Caustic Tone

Caustic Tone

"The Lord does whatever pleases Him--in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths!" Psalm 135:5-6 

It should fill us with joy, that God's infinite wisdom guides the affairs of the world! 

Many of its events are shrouded in darkness and mystery, and inextricable confusion sometimes seems to reign. 

Often wickedness prevails, and God seems to have forgotten the creatures that He has made. 

Our own path through life is dark and devious, and beset with difficulties and dangers.

How full of consolation is the doctrine, that infinite wisdom directs every event, brings order out of confusion, and light out of darkness--and, to those who love God, His infinite wisdom causes all things, whatever their present aspect and apparent tendency is, to work together for good!

"We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose!" Romans 8:28

           

            The longest border in the world between two nations. The 5000 mile border  between Canada and the USA.  There are few guards and unlike the southern border there is much freedom back and forth across the Canadian border. 

            According to the oxford English dictionary, the name Jesus is the  most abused "curse word" in the English language.  We who know Christ the holiness of Jesus our savior, CRINGE every time we hear someone take our lord's name in vain.  These ignorant people have no idea of what they are doing and we have all suffered the rudeness of giving someone that "Puritan" stare.

            I learned long ago, in listening to wild parties going on in houses near me that one of the first exclamations you would hear from some female "oh my God" she probably knew very little about God and had no idea of the danger involved using his name recklessly.  Like boundaries between nations, every person, for a show of education and "class", is nothing else, should watch their use of the tone.  We see the trouble politicians get themselves in with a lack of control of the tone.

            Words mean something, the human being is blessed with the ability to communicate with words.  I must admit that I have always had a very caustic tone...knew how to use words...knew how to tell someone off.  At age 86, I am rapidly learning to control my tone because I well know that I said things I could never take back "you cannot unring a bell".

            

#1846 When the Dust Settles

When the Dust Settles

Achievement, in the narrow sense of possession is a stale finale. The dreams that can be completely realized are not worth dreaming. The higher the dream, the more impossible it is to realize fully.

 (Eugene O'Neill)

            We live in a world that has resolved itself into a cauldron of social, scientific experimentation.

            UNTHINKABLE, just a few years ago and certainly not 86 years ago when I was a boy, no matter how worthy the cause, compromise- justification for the evil involved.

Who could have imagined, even the most sin cursed liberal among us, the now accepted practice of same sex marriage. There are "supposed" Christian pastors, even denominations who are accepting this heresy, there is a need for true converts in the pews as well as the pull pits. Church members, even the pretenders and performers should sit down with the true architect of the universe and spend time with His answer book.

            UNTHINKABLE, the destruction of the family. Even the physiatrist- psychologist giving credence to the gay gender warfare on the family. The talking box has become the only center of activity in family life. Get rid of the trash that comes with television, the computer, the cell phone. There are more cell phones in America than the population of America. Bring your families back around the table at meals.

            UNTHINKABLE, that 3,000 babies are killed each day before birth, that 72% of all black babies are aborted. Our God fearing- hard working- tax paying ancestors would never had believed that we would have hauled our "old folks" off to a hospice facility for euthanization ... what these hospice exterminators call a slow- painless death.

            UNTHINKABLE, big medicine, big Pharma, big scientific foundations have decided that chemical slow death, via pills is preferred. Pharmacy makes more money on vaccines than prescription drugs. Forget your God given immune system, stick that baby with vaccines as early as possible...to hell with the consequences.

            But, in a day of 7 minute restricted doctor visits...I laugh every time I hear the words 2nd opinion, all doctors and hospitals are not stupid, in spite of their bacteria hoarding carpets, stuffed chairs, germ ridden draperies, there are still some good hospitals. At mass general, this doctor was put in the room with another doctor, one from Madrid, Spain. Both eye surgeries, both blind, we were fed by blind volunteers. At Duke, this doctor was placed in a room with a man dying of alcoholism. For years he had drank 1 pint of bourbon each day. VIA the Roman Road, I led him to Christ, and I was there when he died.

            There are many things going on in our daily lives, punctuating every news broadcast that could make us think that we are living in the worst time in history. It was worse in 1939 when Hitler and Nazism was threatening to take over Europe. 6 million Jews were killed in the death chambers, 245,000 disabled persons were put to death.  Heathen Japanese were threatening to take over Asia: Russia, when Stalian killed 26 million of his countrymen: China, when Mao Zedong killed 126 million of his country men as General Lisimo Chang Chiang Kai-Shek and his fancy wife fled to Taiwan with so much wealth, even to this day, the caves are full of Chinese riches. As has always been mankind failure, and God only had to say it once, "the love of money is the root of all evil." (Timothy 6:10) It is unthinkable that Catholics vote for liberal democrats who kill babies and the elderly: that, Mennonites- Amish can not drive their horses and buggies on tax supported highways, that Christian private schools must teach sexual perversion: that Muslims must sell liquor and cigarettes in their stores: Jews must sell pork in their markets.

            BUT, our days are still not as bad as some this writer has witnessed. It is unthinkable that in my lifetime share croppers, cotton mill workers, coal miners, even children working in sweat shops...were barely eking out an existence and were still defenders of the Christian faith,  their children, many (50% in such poor health that they could not pass the military physicals, rather serve in the civilian WPA) became the greatest Patriot protectors of this nation, fighting against impossible odds in two world wars. When the dust settles, when the wars were won ,when our nation enjoyed prosperity such as the world has ever known, the SUPER POWER when we sent 90% of all Christian missionaries to the world, when we perfected small chips that could result in free telephone calls around the world just by pushing some buttons, the same chips producing nuclear weapons that could eradicate the world. It is time to stop and think about the unthinkable.

            Feelings and emotions come and go. Like the warp and woof of weaving a magnificent tapestry, with all the bad, thank God for the memories of the good. Remember, God who created the world and everything in it, is still in charge. All he ask is trust. Forget your denominations, your false religions, your contempt for the evil that surrounds us, remember the Jewish slaves working for Pharaoh, sitting in the greatest magnificence and splendor the world has ever known.  Those Jewish slaves were saved and became the epitome of redemption, it was simply a matter of "trust and obey." No one was asked any theological- political- sociological questions, it was simply a matter of following instructions... the blood of an innocent lamb on the door post of their house. The death angel saw the blood and passed over. When  all the dust has settled on everything, the blood of Jesus is all that matters. 

#1821: Theophany of Complexity, Mire and Muck of Living

To Live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

- Oscar Wilde

Topic: Theophany of Complexity, Mire and Muck of Living

            This writer has learned that in most books, scientific, historical, even biblical we are exposed to a truth--not the truth.  Men write their interpretation of a truth. In the "crash test" of life, like the Venus Flytrap, beyond the reach of embarrassment, choking on the life of the past, we may get swallowed up. Most of us are chained to the games of life, to our own personal ideologies of living. I have known men whose entire existence was punctuated by sports...they would drive long distances, spend much money, to watch a small white ball knocked around on expensive, green, realestate. I have known men whose life interest were in a deck of playing cards...winning and losing at the gambling table. I have known men who have lived for the winning and defeat in business prices...stock market, realestate. "Just another good season" - Jack Lemmon, Save the Tiger.

            It is important to decide which side you are on. We live in a nebulous world want someone to take care of things. Those who have supported the communistic theories of a Sanders or a Clinton , "more free stuff", always believe that they just have to call 911 and some government official would take care of their problem.  When the grid is exploded, when there is no electric power anywhere, when the store shelves are empty, when there is no gas in the tank or at the service station, when there is no one at the hospital or funeral home, even the Whitehouse, who "cares about you", they are all in hiding. You will find out what life is all about.

            On the farm, as a young man, we fattened hogs on a cement-bottom pin for meat in the winter, it was such a nasty place. Hogs don't mind wallowing around in their mire and muck. They have no respect for self or one another. Their whole entire life revolves around eating, drinking and sleeping (someone doing everything for them). They were probably pleased when I went into the pen with a large shovel to clean out the muck, but they really did not care indifferent. When my father went to the pen, at hog killing time, to shoot-bleed out, one at a time to take to his scalding vat. Those with whom they spent their time did not care...just kept on eating...it was much the same way when he caught them for me to hold one by one, as he castrated them. They were just stupid animals, good only for their meat product. There was no sexual attraction between them. No concern for one another. There was no humility-integrity-morality. Hogs, cows, horses, even pets such as dogs and cats, Just the property of their owners. Reproduction came from the sex act at their season. Mother hogs, cows, dogs, even cats, did have certain care for their young for a short time after birth. Now, do you realize the nebulous world into which mankind has emerged? We have assumed the posture of the lower animals, we just want someone to take care of us...free college, free housing, free food, free healthcare, free retirement checks.

            America, and many other nations, have become parentless societies. Four out of ten children, born in America, do not know either mother or father. Among blacks, 70% do not know their father. The liberal, god-less, political animals, are astounded that so many young black men are in prison.  Face it, we have mostly "test-tube parents" and pretend to raise children in a God-less society. It is not just the aborted baby that is lost to the world.

            Old cemeteries, graveyards, have always been fascinating to me. Do you ever read the tombstones, the names and the dates? There is a new app on the Smartphone, you can aim your Smartphone at the tombstone, and your phone will come up with a biographical sketch of the person buried in that grave. In my lifetime, 85 years, the world has changed completely. The generations before me, entered in these graveyards, did not have ancestors who were drug dependent. They had the theophany of diligence. Knew some muck of sinful living, but well acquainted with the mire of hard work and hard times. Character determined their destination.

                                                                                                  

#1820: Flip Flops

Topic: Flip-Flops

KJV Proverbs 12:10: 10 A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

                        11 He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding.

                        12 The wicked desireth the net of evil  men: but the root of the righteous yieldeth  fruit.

          Never trust a man until you have seen him weak, beaten down with disease-distress-dependency. When he is weak and holds on to his trusting God, then you know he is honest. A man who persists never questions the word of God. He does the best he can with what he has.

          Once, on a nearby farm, some boys were showing me their "rabbit-box" traps. In one of the traps, there was a opossum. When the opossum came out of the trap their hunting dogs went wild, jumping at the freighted animal, but this wild animal had the survival instinct all the opossum posses with which to fight is his mouthful of sharpened teeth, a dangerous "whipping" tail. The tail was going wild and dangerous as the opossum never backed off from the dogs, ready to get a hold of one with its sharp teeth. Every animal, from one cell to many cells, has this survival instinct. The animal may be microscopic, a germ or virus. It may be a small insect. The chain of life is made up of cells with survival instinct. Man is the only animal who knows he is going to die. Who, is given the reasoning ability to protect himself and to make decisions about his life preservation. For all other animal life, just survive by basic instinct.

          There are many interesting aspects in studying the health sciences...health care professions. Those studying, publishing, publicizing health care are always giving learned advice. "Exercise in order to live", "Do not use tobacco products",  "Limit your use of fats", "Do not buy any product that has words you cannot pronounce". Until 1900,  most Americans and indeed, most people in the world, lived in rural areas. Foods came directly from nature. The "good Earth" was full of chemical elements, nutrition needed for life. With the depletion of the soil, with the invention of chemical and synthetic products, toxins (poisons) were introduced into the life cycle. Insecticides poisoned everything about our food...from the ground, to the cooking pot, to the serving plate. We know that plastic plates and cups are made of dangerous chemicals...that bleaches chemicals into the foods and yet we eat it. Then, we cannot understand why we have so many strange illnesses. We know that chloride and bromide are poisons yet, we allow our local politicians to put such poisons in our municipal water systems. We know that radium is a poison, and yet, we cling to radium therapy for cancer treatment. We know that chemicals start the cancer cellular divide, but we use chemotherapy for treatment of cancer. Flip-flops have become the "standard of living". 

          We flip-flop in our attitudes towards our lives at the church house, the courthouse, the schoolhouse, even at your house. Young parents do everything possible to show their love and concern for their child. They read the self-help books, work night and day to provide for their child. Parents teach their children to speak correctly, to show good manners, want their child to live a productive life, yet after the sanctity of a healthy home, they will send this precious child to a "hell hole" called a public school, where they are exposed to every pagan-heathen practice known to man. In the sensitive years when a child is adjusting to their own sexuality, because of the "gay agenda",  because of the Democrat party objectives; their child is totally confused by the "political correctness" and the sexual confusion of adults. What a flip-flop. Laws, traditions, common sense, all tossed aside in order to accommodate a flip-flopping-Diocletian, indifferent heathenistic-attitude towards the future. This writer honestly believes that a  culture has been spawned and conjured, which wants to destroy civilization as we know it. The dogs in the alley-the wildlife in the jungle-possess as many morals, have as much integrity, as many of our fellow "homosapiens" around us.

          Where are our fellow human beings with the academic knowledge, the scientific backgrounds, the knowledge to give us the absolutes of right from wrong? Just a few years ago, lobotomy's (a surgical operation involving incision into the prefrontal lobe of the brain, formerly used to treat mental illness) and electric shock treatments were used for mental disorders; flip-flop, were we crazy? A few years ago, we were told about the horrors of eating chocolate and coffee; flip-flop, now chocolate and coffee are "good for you". A few years ago, "stay away from fats"; flip-flop, unsaturated fats are good for you. A few years ago, running was good for you; flip-flop, running is dangerous for your knees and joints.  A few years ago, Marijuana, a "gateway drug" was a curse to humanity; flip-flop, Marijuana is being sold by states as a medicinal drug. We know that every alcoholic started with the first drink. We know what alcohol does to people; destruction of the human body, destruction of the family, #1 cause of divorce; flip-flop, some states are in the business of selling alcohol to their citizens. If a disease, such as alcoholism--diabetes--heart attacks--stroke--cancer--does not affect me, it is permissible to flip-flop and use the tax proceeds from those who are effected to make my life easier. The tax on cigarettes from those captivated by nicotine, can only make life easier for the flip-floppers who once grew the weed, helped many families, universities, even hospitals become rich and famous from the deceit and defeat of their fellow man. Duke, Wake Forest, etc. There is no flip-flop like governmental flip-flops in finance, immigration, controls on everything. In the land of the free, home of the brave, your every action is controlled by a permit or a license.

          There is no flip-flop like that of a spiritual one. We play games with everyone; the tax person, police officer, your doctor and lawyer. At the courthouse, we swear on the Bible and then a lie. The school house, such a need for education, has become a place of indoctrination. The greatest tragedy, flip-flop involving the future of mankind, pretending and performing at the church house.

#1816 Tones and Drones

#1816 Tones and Drones

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

-Romans 1:20-

         

            Pictured, the entrance to Harvard University  where the word 'VERITAS' meaning truth is on display. There was a time when universities, scientific groups, foundations, even religions were interested in truth. We knew that  the truth would set us free. Liberty of body, soul and mind comes from truth. Jesus, himself said, "I am truth". John 14:6. In my lifetime," political correctness, compromise, just going through the motions"...And government, science, even religion, " the end justifies the means". AND, everyone follows the money trail.

            Truth is truth whether anyone believes it or not. In an age of compromise, when most people would prefer believe a lie rather than the truth, when success with individuals and nations is measured by the best liar, we find that truth is in short supply.'Truthers' must be willing to be ridiculed. Those who speak truth recognize hopelessness...Whether in lifestyle or national diplomacy.

            The scientists, even the family doctor, knows that aspartame is a poison, and yet we see 'diet' drinks all around us. Diet is really a four letter bad word. We know that sugar is the most addictive substance know to man. There is a teaspoon of sugar in almost everything we eat...even the lowly hotdog. We know that vaccines are poisonous...causing autism. We know that radiation causes cancer and yet we think we can use radiation to cure cancer. At the church house, schoolhouse, court house, Whitehouse, (perhaps even in your house), Whether we follow Gods word (the Bible) or not, we have that innate conscience gift to know right from wrong...An absolute that no scientist or psychologist has ever been able to deny.

            Man is the only animal who knows he is going to die. At my age, 85, I know the sunset is not far away. Why should anyone, knowing the uncertainty of life, not prepare for death.

            This writer has known several funeral directors- morticians. I asked one of my friends, a well know funeral director, do you have any fright in handling the bodies of dead people? Does it bother you to know that you are trusted with the final care of a  families loved one? I realize that the funeral industry has become a very large and profitable business; In the 1920's , many lost confidence in the funeral home and those who profit from death. Have you noticed that there are so many cremations-so few large funerals? So many families that just want to "get it over with".

            My friend, (the mortician),  said to me, "When I was in embalming school, we were to taught to be aloof with a dead body by using a very dead lifeless piece of timber. We used a six foot long, 2"x 12 " rafter, such as you use in the construction of a building. This piece of wood had no soul, had no personality-looks. All dead people look the same, ugly. We would place the piece of wood in a casket, would even go the graveyard and exhume a casket with a piece of wood.... It all became very impersonal...just a job. Of course, with the corpse or a piece of wood, we observed privacy, honored the deceased by covering with a sheet". He further told me over the years, "I have seen families become indifferent to death. Most family members never even look at their deceased love one. They will pick out a casket by phone, send clothes down for burial or cremation. Simplicity seems to rule, they just want to get it over with". This writer has seen the impersonal attitude towards death all over the world...The funeral pyres along the holy Ganges in India, rituals of Buddhists in the Himalayas, the total lack of anything pretty (flowers or a casket) in the barrel process of Muslims: just digging a hole and putting the body in it, usually wrapped in a sheet. The tones of death are always with us. I so remember as a child the family graveyard, where a grave had "caved in". This showed that the coffin had rotted. There was always dirt piled at the edge of the graveyard with which to fill in the graves.

           

            Perhaps Americans, like so much of the world have become immune to sorrows involving the death of loved ones. Soldiers were buried wrapped only their flag. Sailors were launched, in a flag,  into the ocean depths. Americans no longer respond to 3000 innocent babies aborted each and every day, flushed into the sewer system.

            The heart of this old-blind-veteran is wrenched with the knowledge that 24 veterans commit suicide each day. Suicide is such a waste. More young people die of suicide than die in car crashes. Veterans know that their government knows " it is cheaper to bury a vet than to care for one".

            Every life, rich, poor, smart, dumb, beautiful or ugly (and I have traveled the world, passport stamped in over 150 countries have an avalanche of problems. Small and big things, like the snow flakes, can become an avalanche. This writer has known poverty now as in the past has had his share of problems. I have seen poverty all over the world- have talked with people with problem. Yet, I have yet to meet one living human being (genus homo) who wished that he had  not been born, had not been given the gift of life. Life is a hectic interlude in an otherwise peaceful non existence. There are a few people, we often call fortunate that do not have the problems of the rest of us... Poverty- disability-slow learners-disease- But, if you have no problems, be patient, they are on the way. Pain and sorrow, disease and despair, is no respecter of persons. Living the Christian life is 90 percent raw courage. Living life, here on the uncertainties of this earth is almost 100 percent courage.

            As difficult as life is at its best, while we as individuals and as nation make it so difficult for others. Warfare until WW2 was very up close and personal. Using rocks- sword- bayonets is up close and personal. Dropping explosives on women and children from drones is not personal until you learn the results of what you have done. Most Human beings have seen the results of sin whether disease or destruction they simply do not want to recognize such.

            Do we as individuals or as a nation think we will escape...out own concern-difference to what we have done to others? One of my best friends was the assistant to a congress person. He said, " The tone of our entire day is scheduled by the buffets-cocktail parties to which we are treated by lobbyists". Those politicians- bureaucrats who spend time- treasure- (it cost 13 million dollars to buy a center seat, 1 billion to buy the oval office) talent to gain the excesses of Washington DC would be careful. Don't they have sense to know that they are in the target of the bitter- vindictive minds of the world. Years ago, after fighting with government agencies, over many things, recognizing the shame of their unconcern, in a dream, I saw Washington leveled... just a marble column standing here and there. 

#1826 On the Stage of History

On The Stage Of History

            Your writer is a world traveler, (8 round the world trips, every continent, passport stamped in 157 countries, this includes both poles). Whether the Intuits of the far north, Asians or Africans, so many primitive tribes worship the sun...something large that they can see, an entity that they can fit into their world.

            In the books of Charles Dickens, he wrote of that days social problems. In Oliver Twist, we have a boy who escaped his environment. Back then, everything was good or evil, black or white. Americas today's world, everything in shades of grey. In every culture, there is a need for health and beauty... some hope in life. It is a human factor to have faithless day: days of despondency, despair, discouragement. Even Jesus was exasperated...a fig tree that did not bare fruit...buying and selling in the temple. 

            God expects only one thing of mortal man, trust. I have found that one who can not trust is not trustworthy himself. To be trustworthy, you must have the grace to trust: those who can not be trusted do not trust. Adam and Eve could not be trusted. All the beauty that one could possibly desire, all the bounty that one could possibly desire. God set just one parameter, "don't touch that tree".

            It is not the righteousness of God rather, righteousness of God...all consuming , as this writer has specified many times, you do not say, I am an American "I am American"... all consuming you, you are stating everything that America stands for. I would be the first to admit that we have many different type of Americans...greedy-envious-hypocritical. There are many who have a certain type self righteousness... pretending, performing BUT, when you have righteousness, through Gods spectacles, he sees the righteousness of Jesus in you.

            This writer, like you, had no existence before conception. Jesus had existence before he was conceived through the Holy Spirit in the body of a 13 year old virgin named Mary. In that manger, after delivery, (God had put on a tent of human flesh). The one who spoke and worlds were formed. Nothingness into somethingness. Jesus inherited it all and we, as believers on him accepting his redemption, become joint heirs with him. Jesus, with the glory of his father, before the world was formed, voluntarily yielded himself, the entire weight of the sin of the world. That is the nature of the spirits he puts in us. Oh how it depresses me that the modern church goers have so cheapened this great gift. Most do not know what it is all about. They actually think that God needs them. They actually think we are to worship "bellhop deity" just to be called on when we need him.  They want to camp out just as near Sodom as possible (even within the smoke and stench of a burning hell).

            Faith is supernatural. We must trust in the integrity of God's word. He did not say one thing accidentally. Jesus is our kinsman redeemer... willing to pay the price of our bondage- ransom. It takes the flesh and blood of a kinsman to redeem... able to pay the price, and what a price he did pay. A cross on Calvary (Hebrews 11). Now you understand why we can worship one whose Father spoke everything into existence. One man, Adam, caused us to lose our inheritance but, by grace through faith plus nothing Jesus, our kinsman redeemer- joint heir has regained our citizenship in heaven for us.

            I never understood redemption, completely, until, one day, on certain business, I was in a magistrate office, 2 parents were there to bond out their son who had been arrested for some malfeasance. He must of been a child of old age because both parents had grey hair. I could tell they had both been crying but they were there before the magistrate on business. the shirtless, shoeless young man, around 17 years of age was brought in, you could tell he was happy to see his loving parents and they had all the grace-faith-trust-love of parents in their son. They presented to the magistrate the deed to their house and its appraisal to bond- bail out their son. They had come to buy his freedom, to take him home. Is this not the history of Christianity? Our kinsman redeemer is the only hope of the world.

            The greatest fallacy, in my thinking as an American and a Christian , is that others have the same belief system- values- absolutes that you have. Others do not have the advantages of your lifestyle. I won life's lottery when I was chosen, by God, to be born: when I was blessed with my parents: when I was given my mind: when I was redeemed by God through the precious blood of his son. Surely others, not knowing the inner wirings of my mind, think I am strange. Remember, it does not matter what others think. The historical stage of the world has been occupied by those who did not choose the most trodden- beaten path. 

#1825 An Old Soldier Salute

An Old Soldier Solute

On

Veterans Day

Glorify the Lord with me;
    let us exalt his name together.

I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
    he delivered me from all my fears.
⁵ Those who look to him are radiant;
    their faces are never covered with shame. (Psalms 34)

            A veteran expects nothing extra. It would be wonderful and expected if the veteran could receive what his government promised him when he enters the military service. Just to serve, just to wear the uniform is a privilege.

            Yesterday, one of my friends left to fly to Normandy for the 75th anniversary. This Veteran was at Normandy for the 25th anniversary.

            In the American experience, next to slavery, the greatest shame of America is its treatment of disabled veterans and handicap citizens.

            For fifty years, this veteran has been totally blind, 100% disabled. I was a medical officer during the Korean War Era. There have been many disappointments in my life. You never recover from poverty or permanent disability, you just learn to trust in God and keep close to that clear- sharp voice "I am all you need".

            I was on the staff of Army hospitals, I saw the best and worst in military sick care  treatment. I wish I could say that I have seen improvement but, in spite of the publicity, in spite of congressional reaction, conditions have only worsened. One of my VA doctor friends, Dr. Charles B. said to me, "the employees working here just keep breathing until they can get that retirement check." When I was young, there was a few WWI Veterans alive, their all gone as well as most of the WWII Veterans.

            I had two relatives who were gassed in Europe during WW1, as far as I know, they never received any veterans benefits. Like the veterans of WWII, they were just thankful to go home and go to work, raising a family, building a community.

            My first real encounter with the horrors of warfare, while in school in Memphis, I've pulled time carry for patients at the Millington VA Hospital. In one room there was four soldiers who had lost both arms and legs; just trunks laying on special beds. A nurse took care of them completely. Of course, they did not live very long. Later, involved in the activities of a nearby city, I came upon a WWI Veteran who had lost the use of both legs, he had designed a contraption of bicycle parts, whereby he could move around town using his arms to manipulate the vehicle. He stayed on one street corner and sold candy bars and pencils. He told me that he did not receive anything from the Veterans Administration but he was thankful to be able to help himself.

            There are 166,000 of our finest buried in overseas cemeteries. This was before the time when bodies were brought home. I stood at that great cemetery at Manila, Philippines, where 18,000 are buried. Of course there are 250,000 buried at Arlington.

            When children and young people are in their most sensitive sexual years, when the politically correct adults are confused about "bathroom training"- gender identity, let us be thankful that there was a time when real men, supported by real women were willing and able to put our national honor to the test on the alter of liberty. America, bull work of freedom, knowing the challenge involved in freedom of religion- speech- defense, at the behest of political slave masters, now willing for self imprisonment. We have been conquered by the enemy of indulgent insolence, with out a shot being fired. Where are the Veterans, the pastors, the parents who profess to love this nation? 

#1824 Homecoming

Home Coming

(Abortion has many victims beyond the child who is destroyed. Were all the abortions to stop tomorrow, the Church's work of healing these other victims will have only begun)

            There is no hill for the self possessed victim to climb. God loves you as you are, wherever you are , but he refuses to leave you there. We all had a starting point, before the foundation of the world, God chose each of us for life (Psalms 139) Marvelously created, one sperm cell of a father, one of millions fertilizing the cell of our mother, producing an individual unlike any other person who has ever lived on this earth. Each of us have 64 trillion cells in the body, each cell capable of producing 100's of pages of data detailing ones ancestry. Life has no guarantees, many innocent babies actually aborted. On one of this world travelers trips to communist China, my guide told me that his sister had produced five baby girls, each of which were strangled by her husband. In that communist, godless society, one child law to a couple, the husband wanted a boy but, this old blind veteran cringes to think that America is heading in the same way as communist China...57 million babies aborted in America since the Supreme Court decision of 1973... the most innocent life, they had never done anything bad to anyone. And yet, we have the nerve to talk about terrorism in other places. Just think, and how could anyone not believe in the omnipotence of the creator of the universe when you consider that like every snowflake that has ever fallen- every grain of sand on a seashore- every person possesses a personhood, finger print, voice and even flex in the iris of the eye, different from any other person who has ever lived. We wonder why 72% of the children from church-going homes leave the church after they enter college. They have seen their parents and church members base their "supposed" faith on feeling, not fact. Christianity is not complicated, just difficult. Christianity is fact not feeling. Even at the old country church (built by my great grand parents in 1874) as a child, I saw everyone base their redemption on a bellhop type salvation, they just called on God when he was needed.

            Even the thousands of different denominations, each thinking it has the true message, believes that God needs them rather then they needing God. In my lifetime, 85 years, with the world completely changed, I have seen organized religion turn into a Madison Ave. type fantasy. Who needs the Grace of God when you have government largess, when you have welfare handouts instead of hard work, when you have politics instead of prayer?

            The one message I have had great difficulty getting across, speaking in pull pits, before groups of every type, the supernatural redemption gift of God when the old man of sin and redemption is replaced with the new creation, salvation experience of being born again by the holy spirit of God. You have within you something which only you can understand, which your family, friends, and no one else can comprehend unless they too have been filled with the holy spirit of God. When you have this new creation, Christ in you, when God looks at you he sees Jesus.

            Perhaps I can explain patriotism on very much the same level. Church members like to fight the battle against Satin from air condition fox holes, they really don't believe, they really don't believe in the mission of the church. The warrior , on the front line, having within himself the spirit of love for God, family, Country will risk his very life. Only the true warrior; true soldier knows the inner conflict of seeing his fellow soldiers dead bodies (in Korea) stacked up like cord wood. ... in the middle east, from Islamic; radical; terrorist comrades must pick up the pieces of their friends. This is what the inner neurology of mankind endures.  With much of the same emotion, the child loves his home. In this writer's prayer life every day, I pray for the refugees, migrants, hungry children all over the world, displaced by the warfare of mankind. They do not have a home. I have written about it before. What I saw on the border of Pakistan... refugees from Afghanistan carrying everything they owned in big sacks on their backs...small children, barefooted in rags, clinging to the only thing they had regarding a home, their parents.  

            The home place where I was raised, in my family for many generations, the first thing my old uncles would do when they arrived at our home, go to the old well (hand pump), a clean glass for my mother and start drinking the water. King David of the old testament wanted water from his home place in Bethlehem (2 Samuel 23:15, 23:16) even Jesus taught us about a drink of water. No water like the clean water from the country home place (the tragedy of modern city living, water poisoned by chloride and floride)...the lie of the century, drinking poisoned water top prevent tooth decay.

            Down the road, up a path from the farm where I was raised, the old Hinnant homestead, one Saturday, each summer, the large beautiful cars would pass our house headed for the long deserted house in a big grove of trees where the family would still have their homecoming. The land had stayed in the family...no one lived in the old house but a family member kept the grounds in order, the old hand pump in working condition. God helps people who have no memories; no love affair with parents, family who have gone on. They would bring their lunch, would take flowers out to the graveyard where parents; grandparents were buried and have a good time rejoicing in the memories of their childhood...their heritage. They were all people of wealth, but not to "stuck up" to remember.

            Likewise, in the woods, not far from my home, on the land of another relative, an old black church ...just crewed benches one Saturday to the year, wealthy black people from town, driving large cars would park up and down the highway, make their way with food baskets and fold up tables to sing and praise God for his blessings, then and now.

            As a child, I never could understand the homecoming at our old country church. when old people, some living far away would show up for that day. Only in recent years, as an old person myself, can I understand their tears as they would enter the church hearing the old hymns that they knew as a child. It is mans possession of a soul, that gives him these emotions, separating man from his fellow lower animals. 

MFS ( More Free Stuff)

April 16, 2016

#1815 Sink or Swim

2 Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

The man with words, Mr. Webster, shows us in many dictionaries that words mean something. In my lifetime, 85 years, I have seen the honor of work replaced by the desire for indolence... Generations of people growing up in homes depending on welfare checks... willing to live off the hard working people who pay taxes. Shame is a lost word in most vocabularies. It is no longer a shame not to work. To honor illegitimacy, whether a baby born to UN-witted biological parents, cheating-deceiving at the tax office, with a plastic card or anywhere else that the law does not extend. 

We would never have believed, as Americans, that a socialist-communist such as a Senator Sanders would ever have been elected to the U.S. Senate, let alone, become a "rock star" among young college students as he seeks the Presidency. I come from a generation where it was an honor to have a job, to provide for your own future and that of your family. My parents, ancestors never thought about retirement, vacations, or even entitlements. Our social security came from hard work and faith in an omnipatent God. Adam and Eve, wearing leaves, were imposed with clothes by God and were told to spend their lives working. Everywhere on this earth that communism has been tried, it has failed. Basic as breathing, basic as a conscious, the fulfillment-enjoyment of work.

Mr. Sanders and other liberal socialist, mostly of the Democrat party, want free college, free public housing, free food. This writer knew the fulfillment-joy of hard-work ( Going to school during the day and working at night) to get through 8 years of University education, I received no "free stuff" from any direction.) In my mind, as I worked to get my education, was the hardworking parents at home, not ashamed of their sweat as they had labored to get me through my early years of schooling.  The thought was always there "They had done the best they could".  My meager preparation, small country school, thirteen in my high school graduating class. Hardly prepared me for the University, but " there was no free stuff", it was a matter of swim or sink.

The best education in the world, the best preparation in the world for dealing with people, selling bibles, door to door, in the hot summer months. My ability to deal with patients, my ability to "hold on" to a dollar, to empathize with common people, came from these years of struggle. God help anyone who has not been through the struggle. "Free stuff", regardless of things or idols do not contribute to a productive future. The LARGER your egotism-your desire for entitlements- the more your dependence on government, the SMALLER your God.

It took me a long time to unpack the excessive baggage I was carrying around... the poverty I had experienced and seen,  the injustice all around us, such as, "Why good people suffer" and the rich and famous seem to escape all responsible behavior.  I could not understand the abuse of children, abuse of the disabled, abuse of the elderly, and the abuse of innocent animals. Abuse of any type is so ugly.  Our world is chewed up with ugliness and God does not like ugly. "How could God allow such injustice?" and then came the military... my experience with warfare. How could God allow the destruction of innocent children... homes for which poor people had worked and, as I traveled the world, how could I understand the inequities in many cultures-nations. God let me know that he did not prevent the sadistic treatment of his own son... Gods own son, perfection personified. Jesus, went to a cruel cross, the most sadistic method of death.

On a remote island in the South Pacific a University professor from a great center of Education, asked me if I would still believe in God IF he could prove to me that God does not exist. I told him, "Your efforts would be futile. You see, the holy spirit of God lives in my soul. God is as real to me as the very air I breathe."

There is a difference in the words free and gift. Mankind is besieged by the four letter words sale or free. God gave man the world and everything in it. He gave us his only son as a gift and belief in his son gives us life eternal.  This is true liberty, true freedom.