Ozymandias

Ozymandias, a fictional character from the poet Percy Shelley, depicting the mystical qualities of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II. The fact that the human mind will accept characters of fantasy, such as that which penetrates the world of science fiction, matters which we believe the human mind would never accept. The 1951 movie The Day the Earth Stood Still starring Patricia Neal tells of a humanoid and a robot arriving on earth with a warning about the dangers of nuclear power...that the earth will be eliminated and other psycho-social dilemmas.

Before his death, Sam Walton was walking across the parking lot of one of his many Walmart stores. He spied a quarter on the ground, stooped down to pick it up, looked at it and then put it in his pocket. Knowing that those accompanying him were laughing, he said, “I did not need that quarter, nor any of the other coins I pick up in walking, but you will notice on each of them it has the words, 'in God we trust.' I depend on, and need, this information, not the money.”

In my lifetime, I have witnessed a complete decline in boldness, plain talk, common sense. The world is so anxious to please everyone. We all think we are public relations experts, constantly rewriting the book How to Win Friends and Influence People. We are so politically correct that being timid, smooching with kindness, being indifferent in order to be accepted by the world, is a strength, not a weakness.

95% of the Christian faith is just raw courage. The Christian accepts the fact that we are not here to please the world and the knowledge that the world will never accept us. Today's manhood reflects cowardice instead of courage. Don't cringe when, on the talking heads' programs, the politician smooths every corner, shows absolutely no convictions in order to please everyone. He loses all integrity, all honesty, just trying to protect votes.

If every pulpiteer of the past had been as lackadaisical, diabetically sweet, as Joel Osteen, the evangelism of the Christian church would have disappeared. The average pastor, sweet in his sanctimonious cocoon of comfortable isolation from the harshness of living, would not dare preach sin's ruin and Christ's redemption to a congregation sitting on cushioned pews, perfumed, aggrandized in “the best the world has to offer”, both physically and mentally sophisticated, educated, this pastor loves his comfort zone too much to antagonize the people who give so liberally when the offering plate is passed. So what if they go to hell, it is up to God to convict them of their insolence and sin.

In Switzerland, where western theology (under Calvin and others) got its start, it is against the law to flush a goldfish down the commode (because of animal rights), yet suicide clinics for human beings are still open. In Switzerland, an ethics panel weighed in on the “dignity” of plants, and decided that the arbitrary killing of flora is morally wrong. The Swiss added to their national constitution a provision requiring “account to be taken of the dignity of creation when handling animals, plants and other organisms”.

Such diabolical ideas about plant rights, animal rights, and even the rights of the earth are being circulated among the liberals of many nations. Strange that these liberals have no problems with the killing of innocent babies, human beings. In America, 52% of all black babies are aborted. Even Catholics, the most pro-life denomination voted 54% for Obama, the most pro-abortion President in history.

A lawless nation such as America, gets what it deserves. In my lifetime, not only have I seen boldness disappear, but I have seen decadence take over in every area of life. Could we ever have imagined a Weiner, a Pelosi, a Rangle, a Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky? This is nothing, reportedly the Obama home in Chicago (5046 South Greenwood Ave) is held by a trust managed by Harvey Greenberg, one of our nation's most rabid Communists and friend of the Obamas.

Reportedly, the President used a social security number in the buying of the house issued to a man born in 1890! Michelle Obama shares her social security number with a 91-year-old Mexican woman living in south Texas! New reports are full of these consistent inconsistencies pertaining to the charade in government, the masquerade of politicians, the demise of human intelligence.

We are in bondage to a thief and liar, the Congress who empowers him, the state-controlled news media who protects him. With boldness, we will ask God to take care of the criminals in Washington. God is still on the job. Just as important as God taking care of the Antichrist is God forgiving the uninformed, the peaceniks, the addicts, ne'er-do-wells who voted for Obama and his ilk. Some academics, socialists, theists, even claim to be Christian, but a believer in Jesus Christ cannot support the Democrat party. Like Shelley's Ozymandias, fiction/make-believe is one thing, the actuality of political, economic, spiritual, physical survival is something else. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)

Wall of Shame

At the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem, near Mount Herzl, Jerusalem, for the millions who died in the Holocaust, among the Hall of Names where you find the names of and testimony about the many who died, you will find a wall “Righteous Among the Nations” where those who helped the Jews in WWII are listed. A Wall of Shame has been proposed, where the names of those who helped in the Holocaust, or remained neutral, such as Pope Pius XII.

Even in America, FDR was criticized because he did not allow the bombing of the railroad tracks leading into the death camps at Auschwitz and Dachau. As horrible as the Holocaust of WWII was...the gas chambers, slave labor, not only the killing of the Jews, but the killing of the disabled, even today we find warfare in full horror.

The latest Obama fiasco, attacks on Libya using the “foil of oil”. Libya is the richest country on the African continent, one of the world's great oil reserves. Up until the recent attacks, Gaddafi was bargaining with America for military supplies. Evidently, the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing, because others saw Gaddafi attempting to initiate a new currency backed by gold. Gaddafi, the owner of 143 tonnes of gold in his bank, was having trouble with the IMF, cyber warfare and OPEC. Slaves bombing slaves...American service people uninformed about what they are doing, Gaddafi loyalists and protesters with nothing to gain from either side; all just attempting to survive.

Americans have increased difficulty understanding the hypocrisy of our involvement in North Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The Bilderbergers, meeting in San Meritz, Switzerland, the globalists, one world government, the bankers of the world...all trying to circumnavigate common man's unrest with a hedge of enslavement. With the common man's access to technology (internet, cell phones, television), the “big I, little u” mentality of the elitist governments, the domination by the bankers and powerbrokers of the world becomes more difficult in a time of Wikileaks, daily hacking and the incredulity threats through acts of God (ash from volcanoes, earthquakes, tornadoes) and the knowledge for even the most uneducated, that hunger separates men from drones and meltdown.

In 1960, following activities with the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade, I became active in the Worker's Rights Organization (WRO). My interest and activity in this group was activated by anger at the way American veterans are treated. Next to slavery, the greatest shame of this nation is its treatment of disabled veterans and handicapped citizens. My entire lif, I had witnessed the disgraceful treatment of sharecropping tenant farmers, cotton-mill workers, ravished/enslaved day-laborers in eastern North Carolina.

It would be difficult to determine who cared less about the disenfranchised of the state: the Democrat party which had been in power since 1900 or the Baptist churches who just looked the other way. Veterans and the disabled (blind, deaf, crippled, etc.) were lucky to get a few crumbs from the table. Cotton-mill workers (and there was a cotton mill owned by a wealthy family living on the hill) in every town of any size, tenant farmers robbed at tobacco auction markets, blacks experiencing the worst of discrimination attempting to elicit welfare rights legislation from a disgruntled, decadent legislature was discouraging. The only thing these democrat legislators wanted were the votes of these despairing, poor, ignorant baptists and other evangelicals; and led by itinerant, ignorant preachers, they went in lock-step to the polls.

Saul Alinsky came on the scene and persuaded the black leadership to hang its futures on the coattails of the civil rights movement. So, after the coup-d'etat, the assassination of JFK establishing LBJ in the Presidency, the plight and fight of the black citizens was initiated. To these uninitiated, everything was, and still is, obscure. Even the black caucus in the congress, slow-learners, finding they are just used by the powerbrokers of the world.

It has taken time, only the most naive could imagine it happening this easily (the end justifies the means). Mr. Obama has been established in the White House, a man with no past. Private investigators are unable to find out anything about him, supposedly he attended Columbia University, but from interviews with 400 people there at the time, apparently no one remembers him. People do not remember him anywhere else in the world, as much as $100,000 has been offered as a reward for anyone who can give information about him.

Private investigators (people licensed by their state), knowing the realities of false information, with access to all law enforcement databases, have been unable to establish any knowledge about this man. Most of us are easily traced with our social security number. 042684425, reportedly Mr. Obama's number, assigned by the agency to Connecticut was first issued in 1890. Surely, at the hospital, reportedly his birthplace, if it could be proven, would have a big plaque stating that this is the birthplace of an American president. Nowhere do you find anything like this.

Easier than invading armies landing on our beaches, almost as easy as aliens crossing our borders...our infrastructure still intact, buildings still erect, harassed overtaxed citizens still working, we have been captured. The present electorate is a shame to our ancestry. Just down the streets from my house is a historic marker that states that George Washington spent the night there. Until a few years ago, until chemicals in our water supply, chemicals in the sky, chemicals in our food dumbed-down the nation, we would have rebelled at the shame of our easy captivity, surrendering without putting up a fight.

Pentecost Sunday

This Sunday, June 12th is Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of the church. 50 days after the Resurrection, ten days after Ascension Thursday, the blessed day when the Holy Spirit of God descended upon the disciples and followers of Christ.

Pentecost is given in the second chapter of the Book of Acts: And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:1-4) The apostle Peter proclaimed the Gospel in his greatest sermon, declaring the prophecy of Joel and there was added to the church at that one time, 3000 members.

Tradition tells us that King Arthur and his knights celebrated Pentecost. Poets throughout the centuries have enthralled us with Pentecost because of springtime, the renewal of life, new beginnings, flowers, and new growth on trees. Shakespeare mentions Pentecost in his play Romeo and Juliet: “What, man? 'Tis not so much, 'tis not so much! 'Tis since the nuptial of Lucentio, Come Pentecost as quickly as it will, Some five-and-twenty years, and then we mask'd.”

Greenery is used for the decoration of churches for this special celebration, along with the singing of Pentecost hymns. Brass instruments are used to signify the gushing winds in the descent of the Holy Spirit. I was in a great ornate Cathedral in Taormina, Sicily on Pentecost Sunday, flower petals were thrown from the upper gallery, symbolic of the falling of the Holy Spirit.

However you celebrate this great event in the life of the Christian church, the descent of the Holy Spirit into the lives of believers, the greatest power/gift the human mind can imagine, the very power of Creator/God alive in the mortal being...we have the comfort of knowing this power is available continuously. That which is promised in light is always available in darkness.

We have this power in times of economic problems: for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. (Matthew 6:25-32) I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. (Psalm 37:25) When God says something, He means it. He will be standing at the corner when you get there. He does not promise you riches but the needs of the day. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (Matthew 6:34-35).

We have this power in times of disease and sickness. If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee. (Exodus 15:26) When you go to the Lord's table in remembrance of Calvary, in remembrance of what He did for you, remember 700 years before the cross, Isaiah told us that He would take all the infirmities, all our diseases to the cross: But he was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5) If only for the remission of our sin, we just need the wine at the Communion table, but with the bread, His stripes, we are healed. Do not forget in the darkness of disease/sickness/surgery, that what He promised us in darkness, we can believe in the light, and what He promised us in light, we can believe in darkness.

We have this power in times of anxiety, stress, nervous breakdown. He has promised us peace: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27) 365 times in God's Word He tells us not to fear.

We have this power in times of guilt. Forgiven, He does not remember our sins anymore. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. (Hebrews 8:12) What a sweet relief to know that you do not spend your life in regret. Perhaps, if we had been sitting with Peter and the other disciples on the day of Pentecost and Peter had risen to speak, we might have said to him, "having denied your Lord three times, Him giving you the chance, three times, for your telling that you love Him. If I were you, Peter, I would stay quiet." But Peter, remembering the enemy's fire from which he warmed himself, remembering the fire on the shore of Galilee where Christ prepared food, knew forgiveness, knew the descent of the Holy Spirit. He preached such a sermon that 3000 were saved on that day, people who could not look back at the Cross, people who knew nothing of ancient manuscripts/prophets/promises, people who saw the eclismic experiences of disciples and heard the words of a true believer. This is the vitality-victory of Pentecost.

Beatific Vision of the Species

First held in 1877, the annual Westminster Dog Show is held in Madison Square Garden, NYC. This international show brings breeders of the canine species together to compete for highest honors in the dog world. The judges look for exacting features of the species, purebred, no off-color bloodlines mixed with good breeding; a total of 179 breeds are recognized by this kennel club.

It has always amazed me just how careful some human beings are about breeding and bloodlines with their pets...the money spent on making sure that your certified animals (“papers included”) have been bred only with certified “best of the species” (dogs, cows, horses, etc.). So particular in their animal's sexual activities, veterinarian care, food, and exercise, when the choices of God's creation, genus homo sapiens (human beings), ancestry, progeny, sexual activities, healthcare, discipline, are so neglected.

One of the most disturbed young men I have ever known in my life, working in a business I owned for a short time, was reared by two lesbians (one of them his biological mother). He had a brilliant mind, artistic ability beyond compare, and yet because of the sociological-psychological trauma of his rearing, he was unable to function in society. These two women had led him to despise all women because of his resentments.

In Manhattan, while eating in a restaurant, the male server became acutely interested in my life. He came by my house several times because he needed someone with whom he could talk. He was a medical student at a New York university, one of the most brilliant minds I have ever encountered. Puerto Rican, great family values, he took his deceased mother back to Puerto Rico for burial with his deceased father. He revealed to me that he was gay, and lived with a male lover who also a medical student. Both went to school and worked every job they could find; both were ambitious, completely at ease in their own skin. Upon graduation, both residencies at a west coast hospital, wanting children, but not wanting female companionship, they adopted a child, a young girl. He called me several times about such: how much they loved this child, spending so much to provide for her. The last time he called, he told me that as she aged, she had built “such a resentment and so despises both of us” because she wanted a normal home-life.

So many think that the religious baptism of a child will ensure Christian conformity. Have we not learned that even the baptism of adults, church membership, does not result—magically—in Christian obedience or even somewhat acceptable hypocrisy. Just participating in a game, just pretending to be a player, even to the extent of talking the language, wearing the uniform, does not establish commitment (you can teach a parrot to talk). Ask the habit wearing, roman-collar wearing, pedophile Catholic priest. Ask the 75% of college students, reared in Christian homes, why they deserted the church after college graduation.

The insult to the Christian world, the insanity of denominations/churches, professing Christians, who sanction same-sex marriage, homosexual pastors and bishops, abortion. The inability to keep oneself separated from the world, the deceitfulness and sinfulness of the world. The Christian is holy because Christ is holy; royal, divine, because as joint-heirs with Christ, we are children of a King. (1 Peter 2:9) Oh yes, Oh yes, I'm a child of the King. His royal blood now flows in my veins. (“I'm a Child of the King” - Hymn).

Government has a very definite responsibility for Biblical and legal marriage and family, the uniting of a male and female (holy matrimony), the production of children. Physically, spiritually, emotionally, socially, the children of normal parents do better in every aspect of life. Only 5% of children raised in “mother and father” homes, live in poverty; very few of these children wind up in prison. Now, there are always exceptions but generally speaking, children from a stable home-life, loving parents, have fewer problems.

You cannot expect children to worship a heavenly father who have had a horrible relationship with an earthly father. I have never heard a gay young man refer to his father, likewise I have never heard a gay young woman refer to her mother. Every young person without a normal mother and father home life or coming from an orphanage or foster home, feel that they have been cheated. All children want parents, brothers and sisters, family ancestry, all animals desire purity of species. There are many things that religious people disagree about: purgatory, rapture, women preachers, method of baptism, divorce, but one thing they agree on, from the first family with all of its problems(one brother killing another) to now, the importance of family.

How many people do you know that can explain their faith? Who, on a piece of paper, can write down the essentials of their faith. Think of it, the only species given by the Creator of the universe, the hope and opportunity of eternal life. The satisfaction of knowing that the spirit of the Creator of the universe is capable of operating within you, giving you advice and instructions about everything, hearing you, healing you, consoling you, and at last, redeeming you. Is it possible to conceive of this species being so nonchalant, so casual, so unconcerned about the greatest gift possible for any brain to conceive? Perhaps, the brain of the homo sapiens species is not capable of this conception. Perhaps this is why God, in His infinite mercy, has predestined those whom He has chosen.

Hoopla

We do what we do because we believe what we believe. For the born-again believer, the real Christian (saved by grace through faith plus nothing), it is hard to understand the unbelief of our fellow man. Like knowing that the human mouth contains more microbiology than the population of the world, that the folded fiat currency in our pocket contains the microbiology of about every disease known to man; we cannot understand our love for money or our carelessness about our mouths.

Even the most heathen among us knows that death is just one breath away. Our salvation depends entirely on our gift from God in the atoning death of His only Son, Jesus Christ. It seems so insane for anyone to say they do not believe in God, anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear...when in life, and certainly in death, they must depend on the mercies of God. Much like the mosquito on the railroad track screaming at the approaching locomotive just before being squished, “I don't believe in you!”

Perhaps the world's best known atheist, Dr. Richard Dawkins, Oxford University biologist and evolutionist, has said that there are no absolutes of right and wrong, no life after death, no moral standards. He has said that raising children in a religious home is tantamount to child abuse. At least Dawkins has enough backbone to defend what he believes, he has said that he wants to promote his disbelief much as a television evangelist promotes his belief.

America's best known atheist is probably Christopher Hitchens. Like Dawkins, Hitchen is a prominent writer and speaker, proclaiming his disbelief and his disdain for believers. Hitchens has said that “any little toad can be called 'reverend'”, and that he “wishes there was a hell, such as they preach, for them to go to.” He has not mellowed in his disbelief, even in his present day fight with thoracic cancer. Hitchens has said that if Satan were looking for an Olympic team, he would be the first volunteer. “I don't believe in God and I am mad with him. Christianity is lies told to young children by old men.”

Atheism is nothing new. The great poet William Blake was considered crazy in his time. For Black, Jesus Christ symbolized a vital relationship between divinity and humanity. Many have said that America is a Christian nation, because 85% of all Americans polled claim to be Christian. As we know, there is a vast difference in claiming, pretending, and commitment. If everyone who claims to be Christian were Christian, America and the world would be a far different place, we would not have such large prison populations, decadence in society, corruption in government.

Numbers are often misleading. The gay community would have you believe that 3.5% of the population are gay, the actual number is about half of that, 1.4%. With professors and even possessors, it is better to make numbers count instead of counting numbers. There are 1.7 billion Catholics in the world, Catholicism is the largest religion in America, Catholics account for 64% of the American electorate, but 54% of American Catholics voted Democrat...voted for Obama, the most pro-abortion candidate in history! This is as difficult to understand as the Jewish population of America voting Democrat: Jews voted 74% for Obama, the most anti-Israel President in history.

The tourist should be the best ambassador for their country. Americans have the desire and money to travel abroad, but American tourists have proven to be our worst ambassadors...their behavior, their dress, their arrogance. I have been in American embassies all over the world. The American ambassador has one responsibility: to give America a good name wherever he is assigned. The land on which the embassy is located is considered American soil, guarded by uniformed marines, American flag proudly displayed. Christians are ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20).

In the hoopla of modern living, your limited contacts, your family, your friends; if you are Republican, you cannot understand why anyone would be a Democrat. If you are Christian, you cannot understand how anyone could be an unbeliever, or even a Buddhist, Muslim, or Hindu. If you are an academician or social scientist, you cannot understand the conservative. If you are a Bernie or Ruth Madoff, or a George Soros, you cannot understand the conservative patriotism of the Tea Party crowd.

In the intellectual bubble, you must reflect on the racial aspects of Darwin's Origin of Species and his efforts at the preservation of races. Eugenics began in America, went across the water to Europe, to Nietzsche, Hitler and others.

There are real scientists and then there are professional scientists. Professional scientists give science a bad name...leaving pure research for the reconnoiter of grants; government and industrial largess. Christians do not believe in the God that Richard Dawkins does not believe in. It is hard to believe in randomness any more than the random selection/creation of a Shakespeare play. The believer has the ability to appreciate the spiritual aspects of a piece of music, classical or gospel, that the unbeliever could never know. God has invested in the believer, a mind, soul and spirit. Only the believer can understand the psychological as well as the physical aspects of prison overcrowding, bullying of children, grief or the unkindness to one another.

The agnostic church does not know the power of prayer. New age religions do not change lives. In the hoopla of men's wisdom, their self-aggrandizement, one must know the joy of walking from darkness into light. (John 1:5)

Showing Up

You embarrass yourself when you demonstrate that you have lived a hypocritical life. In my lifetime, hypocrisy has been shown by “just showing up”.

Just showing up for worship services, deliberate religious impoverishment. Who do they think that they are fooling: God? Family? Friends?

Just showing up for a job, insulting maturation in the work ethic. Uninterested workers, just clock-watching, more interested in time off than the opportunities afforded.

Just showing up for class, educational depravity. In many cases, the learning experience has just become a ladder for getting somewhere, a worthless piece of paper. Never before in the history of time have we had such a mountain of knowledge. Think of how much the ancient thinkers and developers could have done with today's research and learning tools!

Next to the creation of God is the magnificence of producing children. Yet some parents, especially the father, barely show up in the rearing of their most valuable possession: their own children. Anyone, even the sorriest among us, can biologically produce a child, but it takes more than just showing up to provide the nurturing they need for development. They are your bloodline, life is in the blood.

Several generations of Americans have never known a real drought. This is the time of sprinkling systems, “endless” water running through the faucet. Today's young people have never seen crops/pastures dry up; animals (cows, horses, mules, etc.) standing at dry watering troughs. How well I remember my father hauling barrels of drinking water from a nearby town for the animals in the farm. Traveling through Russia, India, during times of drought, the rivers were totally dried up, the fields littered by animals who had perished, wells and springs dried up, military water-carriers brought in just to keep the populations from perishing.

In olden times, less prolific and profitable generations, young people knew that rain fell on both the just and the unjust. (Matthew 5:45) Elijah was just one man against 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. The prophets had prayed for most of the day, self-mutilated themselves attempting to get Baal to devour the sacrificial offering; but Elijah, with a 26-word prayer...the fire devoured the offering, alter, water, everything. God showed up and ended a three-year drought. Droughts, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, disease and death show up in God's own time. HE DEALS WITH US. In spite of ourselves, He deals with us.

In spite of the insanity of our economics, He deals with us. If one dollar bills were stacked all the way to the moon and back twice, you would have an indication of our national debt ($14 trillion). In spite of the insanity of our sexual morays, He deals with us. The pink gay-pride flag flies above the Federal Reserve Building in Richmond, VA. Numbers were invented 10,000 years ago; a human can recognize at most seven objects at a given time. America has spent itself into a numbering system which only a computer can recognize.

Last week, Dr. Jack Kevorkian died. “Dr. Death” had assisted in 130 suicides. People who because of stress, or disability, did not want to continue living. With all the comforts of this age, there are more suicides than ever, 18 per day just among military veterans. I think I met Dr. Kevorkian one time, at Easter Island (in the Pacific, 500 miles west of Chile), while on a trip there. He was a fellow traveler, and we both were asked if we would like to see their hospital. A very nice facility, not one patient in the hospital, who knows why, but from diet, climate, exercise or something, the inhabitants of Easter Island were very healthy. Dr. Death would not have agreed with me, but I do not know if God had ever showed up in his life.

I am convinced that just the miraculous act of reading God's Word will heal. I told many patients in my time to go home and just read the Bible, particularly the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs. It was a healing experience for most of them, especially for those with beginnings of Alzheimer's.

Before 1850, before exotic chemicals used for treatment, before the chemical pollution of food and water, before the stress of technology, mankind was dependent on God showing up. Before modern day advertisement made sure you were dissatisfied with your life; before the most dangerous technology to health showed up (air conditioning); when children played outside, people sat on their front porches, took long walks in the heat or cool of the day, worked in their flowerbeds or gardens, allowed the particles of dirt to penetrate their skins, giving them the health salve. We could handle stress, which is nothing more than change, when God, in some way, shows up.

Showing up, fast-food drive-thru, airports, shopping malls. Have some reserves in your life...routine times of rest, relaxing times with hobbies, restorative/remembering times with children, family and friends. There is more to family life than just showing up to school activities, graduation, family activities, weddings and funerals, friends activities, ostentatious cocktail parties, obligated sick visit. Even in the hospital, the nursing home, the visited can tell if you are just showing up. So mired in knowledge, the philosophy of the world has been changed with lettering on t-shirts. Even Old Navy stores sell “gay pride” shirts.

A one time Christian nation...20% of all prisoners (total 2.2 million), about 340,000, convert to Islam before leaving prison. The Islamic goal in America is for every family to be approached with the Muslim religion. Middle East wealth (Saudi Arabia) pays $20 for the conversion of any American child. Every 24 hours, there is an addition 6,000 Muslims in the world. There are now 1.6 billion Muslims on earth. In Muslim countries such as the Sudan, if a Muslim becomes Christian, the person is wrapped in a white burial cloth and beheaded. A Muslim will not eat a watermelon because Muhammad never ate one. Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. (Proverbs 30:5-6)

Argument

CS Lewis, one of the world's greatest writers said, “Christians are the best argument for and against Christianity.” 60 years ago today, having worked my way through the university, working at night, going to school during the day, I began the most difficult work of my life: selling Bibles door-to-door during the summer months in order to go to graduate/professional school. So, for the next 4 years, I sold Bibles door-to-door each summer.

I remember the country crossroads community (Maple Hill, NC), the first door on which I knocked. With any type of door-to-door selling, you get many more rejections than sales. I was staying in Wallace, NC with two other young salesmen. We were in a state of shock after our first day on the sales field, the other two left after the first day, went home. They needed a job, “but not that bad.” I stayed with it, the more difficult it became, the harder I worked. I suppose this is the reason I have so little tolerance for the spoiled, callous, generation which we encounter now. I suppose this is also the reason I have so little tolerance for faithless people, those who have never depended on the mercies of God.

I believe God made arrangements for me to travel the entire world, even in my blind condition, because He wanted me to know about the many people across the world, who so want and need opportunity. We hear of Zheng, the 17-year-old Chinese student, so wanting an Ipad, that he sold one of his kidneys. With the sale of his kidney he bought a Ipad and an Iphone.

History is marked by individuals who have given the best version of self, a credit to the human spirit. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. (John 1:1-4) All we need to know about creation and the mind of man, we find here. Some, in their own wisdom, have tried to “conform” (Romans 12) without knowing anything of transforming. Stephen Hawking, perhaps the world's greatest mind, from his almost totally paralyzed cocoon of existence has described the black hole from which we came into existence. Richard Dawkins, another great intellect has said, “DNA neither cares nor knows. DNA just is, and we dance to its music.” Christopher Hitchens, America's best known atheist, now facing death from cancer, has said, “I have found, as death becomes more familiar, that all the special pleading for salvation, redemption and supernatural deliverance appears even more hollow.” It is rewarding that his brother, Peter Hitchins, is a staunch follower of Jesus Christ.

Just this week, scientists from the world health organization have promoted what many of us have suspected for a long time. The relationship between the use of cell phones and brain cancer. Only those who have studied the magnificence of the brain can fully understand God's design in making the mind spiritual as well as physical. While it is true that from the billions of cells, the billions of synapses in the human brain, our mind physically performs our many tasks. More important is the magical/spiritual processes of the brain by which we can actually interrelate with a Designer of the universe. Just think, a brain so adapted to knowledge that one can perform expertly at the piano keyboard or at the surgery table in the operating room. The brain, the mind, the 23,000 gene genome, the immeasurable, almost incomprehensible microbiology involving all life-systems.

The same scientists who present us with the almost incomprehensible knowledge of our life, our bodies, our systems are the same ones who expect us to believe that it is all a matter of happenstance. That in some way, the world and everything in it, developed from the goo, to the zoo, to you. That the greatest of God's design “just happened” from pond scum.

Welcome to the last days. With earthquakes, tornadoes, storms, God is showing what He can do with almost invisible force. Then, we have a new variety of E.coli bacteria, supposedly originating from cucumbers, leading to uremic poisoning, kidney failure. Since the microscope, since Pasteur and others: bacteria, then viruses, but always the knowledge that the little foxes spoil the vines. (Song of Solomon 2:15)

God used just 5 words to inform us of Who designed the heavens: he made the stars also (Genesis 1:16). With all our learning, never coming to a knowledge of the truth, yet the truth is all around us, God ready to reveal all truths. Be specific, God will not be shocked, He has much time to listen, “my foot hurts, the toe on right foot”.

Homeland Security knows nothing about hackers: it could be the man in the moon. Wikileaks and Gmail has shown us government's weakness in intelligence. We have a nation hungry for knowledge, most families of four spend $500 a month, just on computers, cell phones, technology.

Once upon a time, there was a home, families gathered around a table for meals three times a day. They had wholesome food without the chemical toxins from plastics and glutanates, their drinks did not contain chloride poisons. The greatest miracle of the universe, magically/spiritually speaking directly to the designer of the universe. Without the staccato trauma from technology, we can engage in civilized encounter only afforded human beings (no other animal has the ability to talk, laugh, frown, smile). If they did talk, would it involve each family member's car, with all the expenses (risk, insurance, license, inspections, upkeep) or with the change in administration, gasoline prices up 50%, sugar prices up 75%, unemployment up 25%, 35% increase of food stamp recipients, 34% increase of the national debt.

The most miserable people in the world are those “in between” in their belief system. We do what we do because we believe what we believe. Get your belief system straight. Forget the malarkey of evolution, fall in love with your Creator.

Nothing between my soul and my Savior,
Naught of this world’s delusive dream;
I have renounced all sinful pleasure;
Jesus is mine, there’s nothing between.

Hymn – Nothing Between (1905)

Charity

The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. (Psalm 24:1) And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. (1 Corinthians 13:13) Look at the literature, the world over, and you will not read greater words than these, relating to Christian living/giving.

Over the years, many cleaning women; one, upon seeing anything showing wear, a broom, mop, floormat, etc., would tell me, “you need a new _____.” One day I said to one of these well-meaning women, “if I replace something every time you say so, I would soon be as poor as you are.” I do not believe there was one farm implement on my father's large, well-equipped farm that was not bought second-hand (at an auction or from a second-hand store). He could look at a plow, planter, etc. and immediately tell how much useful life was left in it. He would bring home any type of used machinery, take it apart, clean it up, lubricate it, put on replacement parts and it would last forever. By getting maximum use from everything, you learn to save and are then able to give (charity). As he told me when I was a young boy, “when you have worked out a car, you will know how to take care of it.” My two computers were purchased second-hand. It is at government buildings, government schools that you find new, latest-style equipment. I hear all the time about computers at the schoolhouse purchased new every year, the same with government-owned vehicles.

America is in a depression which I surmise will make the Great Depression of my youth look like a cake-walk. Just yesterday, state-controlled news media was expecting 177,000 new private-sector jobs, there were 38,000 jobs. Most new jobs...federal, state, or local are government jobs. In order to pay these government workers, private industry must be taxed. The government punishes those private employers who do hire by taxes and regulations. In our flight toward one world government, globalism, totalitarianism, when the stimulus wears off (Mr. Obama's programs), the sobriety starts. The increased taxation, regulations of government paralyzes, and from the coma of controls, comes the realization that suicide was attempted but so far has not been successful.

There is not one person in the present administration with practical business experience. Mr. Obama has never run even a lemonade stand, knows nothing about the famine and frailty of running a business...risk, licenses, insurance, taxes of every description. Entrepreneurship is in our history, but will not be in our future. The men and women who started this country's great businesses in their garage, the pioneers, Edison, Gates, Monaghan, Colonel Sanders, Jobs, Dell, Zuckerberg, etc. these people will be hard to find, like those gallant warriors fighting disease and infirmity, eyes in books while friends are out partying, put into a kibosh of proletariat control under Obamacare and other communist systems. Who will fight the fight in spite of our well-honed American adeptness toward charity?

My father was a barber on the weekends. One preacher, man of God, told him once when he was getting his hair cut, “I want it trimmed just enough so that only you and I know that it has been cut.” My father said, “if he were not living off of God's money, had to get out and work hard every day like his congregation, he would want a haircut that would last for awhile.” The trouble with politicians, most pastors, most bureaucrats is laziness...it is easy to spend and live off of the money of others.

In a private business, you check your bank account every day, not only to make sure you can afford that day's business activity, but to make sure someone has not hacked his way into your account. Just today, someone from London hacked into my account and bought $200 worth of pornography. Another day, a university student on his first day on the job, used my password and account to order pornography to be delivered to his address. Another day, another employee, attempting to sell cars on my online auction account. No need of even reporting such thievery to the law enforcement, this is at the bottom of their “to-do” list.

Those in the halls of legislation, those who make the laws, will never have to live and work regulated by the laws they write. We actually think politicians, the parasites of society, will straighten out the mistakes they have made. National politicians are untouched by this depression, this economy. The best economy in America is in-and-around, Washington DC, (housing prices, jobs, etc).

It is as natural as breathing to become angry with God about unfairness, such as children being snatched from the arms of a mother during a storm as in Joplin, Missouri. These questions are as old as time. God does not wear a watch, does not own a calender, but will take care of everything in His own way, in His own time. He just expects us to trust, to obey in our living and our giving. You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving, the tithe is the Lord's whether you give it or not. He expects His tithes from the net, not the gross. You can be confident in the love and understanding of God. Faith is a verb, action based on belief, sustained by confidence.

It started in 1963 with an innocuous 21-word prayer, the US Supreme Court removed prayer from the public schoolhouse. Then, from sports; then, from graduation ceremonies, Bible studies from schools, Bibles removed from schools. At graduations, at school events, you can mention the names of anyone, Mao, Stalin, Jimmy Hendrix, Michael Jackson, anyone except Jesus Christ. America is afflicted by the victim psychology...50 million Americans on food stamps, more money owed on student grants and loans than is due on all credit cards. To demonstrate our mathematical skills, the total worth of the 300 largest US pension funds: $10 trillion dollars...our total national debt: $14.2 trillion.

59% of US citizens expect a government entitlement, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, military, civil-service, disability retirement. Never forget, we get by giving. Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. (Luke 6:38)

Lonely Hearts Club

Pat Boone turned 77 years of age this week. How well I remember, at the Army hospital where I was on staff, walking into the coffee shop, the magazine rack filled with magazines, Pat Boone on the cover in his white buck shoes. I remember buying a pair of white buck shoes, hoping that the Pat Boone image would rub off on me. Pat, like the rest of us, has aged, and we are living in a different world.

I hired a woman to work for me, doing secretarial work and book-keeping. She had arrived from England just a few months previously. In this different world, through a online dating service she had met a local man. They had corresponded for a long time, become friends; and fool of all fools, against the wishes of her mother and children, she had sold her house in England, moved to North Carolina and married this man. She thought that she knew him, “he is so nice when he wants to be”, but she had truly married a “Jekyll and Hyde”, bipolar, dual personality.

He had been a prisoner of war during the Vietnam campaign, warped forever from the experience. On returning home, so totally mentally-disabled; his wife became a suicide victim, his sons left home forever. Lonely, he had resorted to online friendships/dating. He wanted to meet me, a fellow disabled veteran; and after I met him, I can fully understand her dilemma. She very foolishly let him get his hands on her money, then she had no way of returning home. He told her to get a job...a woman without even a green card. That did not affect my employment of her, and I would have used her longer if not for the excessive baggage she was carrying. She needed someone to sympathize with her, someone with whom she could talk, someone to give her advice.

As early as 2004, there were 844 lifestyle and dating sites. In 2008, $957 million in revenue was generated by these online dating services. One out of each five marriages and one of each three dates now results from online friendship/dating services. Some of these websites are free, and you get what you pay for; those that charge, usually do a background and identity investigation. Another single woman who worked for me, university graduate, one of the most capable women I have known, working for me part-time, as well as working as a dog trainer, used one of these services. She thought the service was exceptionally good, providing a very good dating service, but became disillusioned after one very bad experience.

Of course, you can have a bad experience dating someone you have known for years, in school or otherwise, but you should be very careful in dating someone who could be a total “con job”. Most con men and women are extremely likable, that is where they get the name.

To the uninitiated, everything is obscure. We believe that an online “Lonely Hearts Club” -type service is for liars and losers, the desperate. Make up your mind to ask for God's direction in this method of meeting people as well as with any other method. Long before I owned a home in Manhattan, while visiting a friend there, he took me to a “club” in New York, membership-required, set up just for singles, where you could meet others. I well remember in this metropolis of lonely people from all corners of the world that you see the desperate standing around , “looking for Mr. Goodbar”. (Looking for Mr. Goodbar was a movie about such which came out in 1977)

It is so much easier to search for such online. You can exchange pictures, really get to know people. Someone said, “They will lie to you, looking you straight in the eye, always up-front and personable.” One divorced woman said to me, “marriage is like walking straight from the light into the dark. If it works out, fine, but if not, it is expected.” In America, 50% of all marriages end in divorce, this is true even among fundamentalist Christians, even pastors. Single parent, female-headed families account for 50% of all families found in poverty. The total number of single-parent families has doubled since 1970.

The old-fashioned way of courting/dating is mostly limited to western countries. In most of the world, marriages are arranged, couples are brought together because of family, parents. Even in America, many religions promote match-making...some of my Jewish friends were married through parent match-making or hired matchmakers. These marriages usually work out real well.

For years there were social-personal services offered by magazines. This was a system for the meeting of homosexuals, bisexuals, and those involved in the selling of sex. In large cities, under codes such as “message therapy” introductions were arranged which lent to the intrigue and dangers preferred by some individuals like gay men in a bath house, anonymous sexual activity; like lonely, disillusioned, straight professional men visiting a house of ill repute.

Traveling the world, particularly in Mexico and the poorer resort areas such as Acapulco, you easily recognize young bisexual men hanging around hotel swimming pools, selling themselves. You would see an older, unattractive woman leave with one of these younger, attractive men. As one of these grand-dom “Perle Mesta” wealthy types told me one time, “I have the money to buy anything I want.”

The great actress Bette Davis said, “sex is the biggest joke God played on human beings.” Sometimes sordid, sometimes dangerous, often callous or crude, we might as well admit that we are all here because of it; an online dating and finding activity is probably as reasonable as any of the other methods. Particularly when you consider the actual expense of eating out, gasoline, etc. It is better and easier to check people out online than any other way. When you have met someone, dated someone, think you know someone—ask any of us who are divorced—it is so easy to have been fooled, and we might as well admit it, most of us do not want to know the truth! The truth is the truth whether anyone believes it or not, in our relationship with Christ and in our relationship with others, especially with those for who we have a sexual attraction. I truly believe that in all our personal relationships we want to believe the best. We even want to believe their lies.

One of the worst places for the mating season, the church house, mostly full of pretenders. In mate finding, date finding, all Christ-centered activity, do not let your heart function entirely as your sight. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. (Psalm 19:8)

New World 2012

When Alexis de Tocqueville came to America in the first half of the 19^th century (1835), the thing that impressed him most about America was it's public postal system. That fact that even during the Indian wars of that time, people on the frontier (Old West) were still informed about the world, could still correspond with their family, newspapers and mail were delivered.

Even in my lifetime, we so looked forward to what arrived in the mailbox, the delivery of the newspaper. In rural areas of eastern North Carolina, and, I believe, in most of America, as I have heard my mother say, there are few vehicles on country roads, but you could depend on the mailman and the school bus going down the road every weekday.

Today, most newspapers have gone out of business, the postal service has priced itself out of business, the school bus is just a vehicle for social engineering (attempt to mix races, ethnic groups, economic classes). Eventually, the liberal-socialist Democrats, the left-wing of American society will achieve the communist system of mixing all children at the nursery as they finally achieve the destruction of the family. Because of the unreliability of the media, as in Russia, China and all communist countries print material from the government will be disseminated publicly, they will be gathered together in large groups. Associated people, for one reason or another, will become more and more isolated. You can see that already, most people living together do not know who lives on either side of them.

In this technology/computer age, you can handle most of life's needs online...shopping, education courses, advice on everything from health/homeopathy to economics, hobbies, personal interests of any type, including pornography. Most young people who have worked for me in recent years have used the computer for online dating, finding someone to share interests and eventually to “shack up” with. Young people can learn all they'd want to know about one another through facebook and twitter, they do not need to endure the expense and disappointment of dating.

Today's world is a world of information fatigue. Right in your own house, information searched from from the 4 corners of the world on everything: ailments, treatments, every area of human endeavor, professional knowledge, disciplines, hobbies, every area of personal interest. Advanced graduate degrees are affordable and available on almost any discipline. The day of the encyclopedias and reference books are over. The talking heads on the television can no longer keep up with everything. Attempting to stay up with everything happening in the world, all the knowledge of the world, one does not have time to think about anything anymore.

Great discoveries were made by people just thinking, unraveling the lengths and depths of the research that many had done before them. The most important area in discovery is that of separation, separating the true from the false, the proven from the disproven. On last count, there are currently 600 uprisings in some part of the world, insurrections such as we are witnessing across North Africa and the Middle East, usually originate in the price of food. When people are hungry and are no longer able to buy the most basic necessities of life, uprisings and riots begin. Food costs usually rise because of the increased cost of gasoline for their delivery, increased costs of fertilizer for the growing. The basics of crude oil-energy production...as the cost of energy increases, so does the cost of food, and so does the cost of uprisings, often leading to actual war.

Increasingly, we are seeing two-tiered cultures throughout the world: the small number who ride in Mercedes, the huge number who are riding on donkeys, ox carts or camels. In the oil-rich Middle East, the disparity between peoples of the same nation has been evident from the beginning of history. Because technology has reached these places (television, computer, etc.) the lower classes, those who ride on donkeys and camels, are resenting those who ride in the Mercedes, who live behind walls and gates. In America, the secular press gives a hedge of protection to the limousine liberals, the private jet televangelists/politicians/rockstars. More and more, because of television and computer technology, the common man is aware of the decadence/hypocrisy...the ones who had their pockets picked in excessive taxation and submission to provide the splendor of high living.

In the world of 2012, the country pays for patriotism...there are more contractors on the battlefield than uniformed fighters. I am told that many of these contractors are paid $30,000 a month. Your government pays for research results, always guiding by a finger in the wind, likewise your government pays for polling results. One does not need a Nobel prize to inform you that human loyalties have been dispersed and often reversed.

In the cocoon of survival, the individual has decided that neither God nor government is available. In the survival instinct, the individual has retreated from large crowds. Sports stadiums and convention centers will eventually shut down, just as will the mega-church. Crowds are too attractive to a terrorist. Finding religious spontaneity/satisfaction in the living room from the very best, the church, the fraternal clubs, the civic clubs, now with a sprinkling of white hair, will become an occasion of the past.

In my lifetime, air travel was a thing of leisure and temptation, beautiful treatment, nice food, well-dressed, well-mannered travelers; on planes, like church, people dressed up instead of down. In my lifetime, train travel was a system of leisure and comfort, comfortable dining cars, superior service. All these things are history, the people who did ride the trailway bus are now in the plane, travel to “faraway places with strange-sounding names” will mostly take place in your living room. We will study and dream about the luxury liners with nice cabins and meals, steamer trunks, gala evening, all the semblances of a past of glamor and glory. Now, a cattle-boat treatment and fast-food, drive-thru status.

The country clubs, for the elitists, will survive for awhile, inner circles among the common man will be replaced by groupings, relegated by skin color, home-schooling interests, diehard sports enthusiasts. It was relatively safe on the golf course, but the day of the hunter is over, weapons are a no-no. Even the Queen of England is afraid that she is the last ruling monarch of the United Kingdom. The UK members such as Canada, Australia, etc. no longer have loyalties to Caesar, have had all they could stomach in nearby politicians and pickpocket bureaucrats. Even in America, governors, politicians, bankers are always immaculately dressed, often a carnation pinned to the lapel.

Queen Victoria, with her marriage to Prince Albert in 1840, set the standard for weddings around the world. As there are fewer and fewer weddings anywhere, economics dictate just shacking up...unmarried households, production of children at the convenience of the unwed mother. We have probably seen our last royal wedding, the royals, like everything else in fairy-tale land, are on its way out.

There is a famous Broadway play called I Remember Mama, God help those who do not have nice memories. A few of the living still have the wonderful memory of America, when she was great.

Dicta

General George Patton said, “say what you mean and mean what you say.” I have never had a talent for small talk, useless prattle. Don't waste my time with such, life is too short and there is too little time to do so much. The difference in dreams and goals: anyone can dream, but you put a date on goals.

The first time I was in Israel, you had the immigration stamp on a plain sheet of paper, not in your passport. Many countries of the world would not allow you to enter if your passport contained the stamp from Israel.

Attempting to leave Ben Gurion Airport, Tel-Aviv, an inoculation was necessary because of an outbreak of a disease affecting the Arab natives. Years later, in Israel again, I was talking about such with a British doctor at the same airport. She told me that she had been there in 1972, and was one of those wounded during the terrorist shootings in which 26 were killed. She had just picked up her bag from the carousel, the same carousel which brought in the bags of the terrorists containing the machine guns and the hand grenades. She told me of the death all around her, blood everywhere...most of a Christian group from Puerto Rico had been slaughtered. I will never forget her words, “death is so close without knowing, all the time, you can almost touch it.” Mortality in the world is still 100%.

Death has become so sanitized. I meet young people who have never been to a funeral, they still look at death as a video game, movie experience. The person might get shot, might play dead, but will come back alive.

Death is the separation of the body from the soul. Parts of the body can be transplanted but the soul, the real you, your personality, everything about you that is personal, is without mass, weightless, magical-spiritual. There is consternation, even conflict about when the soul leaves the body. The Muslim believes the soul leaves the body when the body is put in the ground. Jews believe the soul hovers around the body for a few days. These rigid descendents of Abraham believe in immediate burial, no embalming.

The examiners test for circulation, respiration; often you have a neurological death, are declared brain dead, you can have ventilation of organs to keep the body alive for awhile. One must use much care in not allowing immediate dissection of the body, harvesting and farming out organs. There are a critical few minutes involved, though pronounced dead, many bodies revive. There are many people walking the earth today who were pronounced dead.

It is amazing how hastily some examiners will pronounce death. I am convinced from my studies, that many people in colonial times, before embalming became standard, were buried alive . Once that trocar needle is put in the body, your blood removed, the embalming fluid put into the vessels, you are most definitely dead. The purging, decomposing corpse of yesteryear might regain life.

One black funeral home operator told me that he went to a home to pick up a body. He rolled the conveyance into an elevator for the trip to the embalming room, and as he stood next to the body, a hand reached out and took his. He said, “I almost tore up my elevator, but the deceased was not deceased!”

There are thousands of people alive today who were thought to be dead. This is one diagnosis in which you cannot cut corners. Just as soon as the hospital or others find you are an organ donor, especially if you are young, especially with the demand for organs, you will become a donor.

The scientists such as Stephen Hawking are looked for one thing that determines everything. He wants the natural man to be converted to an equation. With the systems involved, man's crowning glory, his nervous system, it is not so simple.

The generosity of God is never more evident or pronounced than in the generosity of His Holy Spirit in our lives. Only God is capable of pulling the plug. Beware of the commerce of body parts...becoming one of the most profitable and prolific adventures of the world. Many hospitals “presume consent”, much mystery surrounds the scavenging of body parts. God is silent on many things, this certainly includes transferring body parts from the dead to the living, from lower animals to man. If there is ever a time for moral certainty, it is at a time of death.

Rich old people do not mind buying the body parts from poverty-stricken young people, especially from third world countries. A moral dilemma: struggling families selling body parts in order to survive. An even greater moral dilemma: embryonic stem-cell research, proliferation and incubation of cells from human fetuses for inoculations.

Families are often ready for the elderly or the disabled to leave this world. The sick and disabled take up so much time, so much money, it is a relief when they are gone. “They would not want to stay around and be a burden”, and you have all heard people say, “I do not want to stay around and be a burden or expense to anyone.” You can be sure that a bankrupt government, Obama-care death panels, inflation in everything growing at tremendous speed. More and more states, more and more minds wanting assisted suicide, death and burial will become more and more a procedural scientific goal.

One of the greatest sicknesses I ever encountered on this earth, standing on a Godless, communist Chinese operating room watching technicians that the viable, strategic organs from Chinese prisoners (eyes, mouths taped, their bodies taped to the gurney) replacing diseased organs in older, sick Chinese patients. I believe Christ took this activity, these diseases, these practices to the cross. (Isaiah 53)

Trustworthiness

In other commentaries I have talked about my walking the streets of ancient Pompeii, as have so many since the eruption of Vesuvius. The cataclysmic event was so fast, instantaneously fixing everything in place with lava-cement for eternity: dogs lying in a doorway, food on a table, people in basements, in bed, at work, at play. The guard at the gate of the city, still standing with his hand on his sword, trustworthy to the end.

Citizens of today's world live in a “matrix”, a gauntlet of deceit. Trust and trustworthiness is difficult to find...whether a doctor, pharmacist, mechanic, sales people... even the proclaimers and purveyors in the spiritual world. A husband should have no problem about trusting his wife, nor the wife the husband. Children should have every right to put full trust in parents.

I purchased one of my Manhattan co-op apartments from a member of the New York Mafia. He owned two apartments in this very remarkable building, sold me mine because it was one occupied by his daughter. The daughter and her husband had become drug addicts...the husband had killed himself, and the daughter was institutionalized. The father, the MAFIA member, was in tremendous debt to gamblers in Atlantic City. It was because of his desperate need for money, that he sold the property as cheaply as he did, and I paid him cash. It was necessary to completely redecorate the entire unit because of the couple's sickness.

After I got everything settled, he asked me to come over one night, and we talked for a while over some pizza which he had ordered. He said to me, “you are the only man I have ever met who I feel I can trust. Members of my family, the people with whom I do business, 'supposed' friends cannot be trusted at all. They'd all as soon kill me as look at me, if I do not do everything exactly as specified by the Mafia.” I did not need any involvement with this man, but it was an educational experience. He told me things that I wish I did not know, things that had happened with the Mafia family, not only in Manhattan, but their summer houses in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He told me about the social meeting places of mobsters, for example the restaurant on the corner of First avenue and 59^th street (almost under the 59^th street bridge). I walked there on several occasions just to see the circus..stretch limousines parked in the streets around the place, chauffeurs with engines running, immaculate formally-dressed men and woman arriving and leaving. He had told me that most Mafia members were Catholic...Catholicism does not care as long as they get their cut.

The remarkable thing about this member of the Mafia, highly intelligent, extremely personable (I have never known a con man I did not like), I believe that such people as him are more aware than others that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). Most Christians, whether Catholic Mafia or cotton-mill worker Pentecostal, likes to think that we can bargain with God, that we are special in our God relationship. We like to fight the good fight from an air-conditioned foxhole.

God is not playing with us, expects total dedication. Constantly our minds are crowded with thoughts, from these thoughts proceed action, and these actions show our trustworthiness. This scripture in God's Word gives us His expectation of our trustworthiness. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

In these times of national uprisings, protests, efforts at reformation in many countries, the story is being told of a group of men led by a reformer/crusader. He with his 1000 men had sought refuge in the mountains. The king, the ruler of the country, with his army, had pursued them, sent an envoy to the bandit demanding surrender. The bandit chief told the envoy, “pick out any man behind me and tell him to come here.” The bandit leader said to the chosen young man, “go and jump off that cliff.” The young man jumped, was spattered dead below. The bandit leader said, “call another one.” He said to this young man, “stick this dagger in your heart.” The young man did so and fell dead at the bandit chief's feet. The bandit leader said to envoy, “Go tell your king that I have 1000 other just as dedicated , just as trustworthy as these.” The King and his army turned around and went back to their home, not willing to go to battle against this dedicated group.

Satan is in charge of the “heavenlies”...the earth, the air and everything that surrounds us. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12) We have become a world of weasel words, trite hypocrisy. Dominique Strauss-Kahn was one of the world's best speakers on diversity...rich, sophisticated, with friends in high places, politically correct. The spontaneity, unexpected consequences of diversity of dragging an African girl across an expensive Manhattan hotel room. Just to think you could trust this man with the world's money, and a maid could not trust him in a hotel room. This shows the acceptability of sinners on the world scene. In South Africa, girls are being raped by men to cure their lesbianism, called “corrective rape”.

It takes 51 million Americans to elect a President. There are 64 million Catholic voters. If the Christian/Catholic church actually believed in trustworthiness, actually believed in stopping abortion, gave no credence to same-sex marriage, a Sunni-Muslim president such as Obama would not be in the White House. If the American Jews believed in the trustworthiness of the prophets of the Old Testament, they wouldn't support anti-Christian liberal causes such as abortion, stem-cell research, the homosexual agenda, the most anti-Israel President ever and give the anti-God Democrat party 75% of their votes. Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)