The Thrill of Easter

We should be thrilled to know there is a God much greater than the one we believe in.  The true Easter message, we can bury our own mythological ideas about God.  His Holiness/greatness are far beyond our understanding.  But, who could worship a God that we can understand?  Because He was willing to put on a tent of human flesh, dwell among us, die for us, allow us to join Him in His resurrection from the dead we might even conceive of Satan standing by the "Broad way" saying, "those are mine" and Jesus standing by the narrow way, stating with great delight, "these few saints on the narrow way are mine".  (KJV Matthew 7:13-14).  

The thrill of Easter "again, like Christmas, defaced by commercialism with rabbits laying eggs/and now like small children now, adults having egg hunts".  The consolation of leaving a saved loved one in the graveyard BECAUSE, like every other promise of God those who have believed in the saving grace and sacrifice, and resurrection of His son will also resurrect.  And, the soul which instantly goes to Heaven or Hell at death will be reunited with the body whether the body was buried in dirt, in the ocean, or cremated.  We must learn to believe in a God of grace and glory that is beyond anything that we can comprehend; not a generalized God who walks around as a police man but a God of power, grace, and mercy who has the very hairs of our head numbered; by whose stripes we are healed from any disease (KJV Isaiah 53:5) and life's greatest consolation for the believer, His promise "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee" (KJV Hebrews 13:5); a God whose tender embrace knows every one's name.  Just think, we mere weaklings, human beings entrapped/tethered to our own "smartness" think that our wisdom is greater than that of God.  We want God in our image, not ours in His.  We like chocolate rabbits laying colored eggs.  We like a "bell-hop" God, one we can call on, only in time of need.  We want a God who is happy if we show up to worship Him one hour to the week, often dragging in late, even giving him a few tips when the offertory plate is passed, having the audacity to sing with real believers "my Jesus I love thee, I know thou art mine".  We do not want to be different in language/dress/activities.  We think God was joking when He said "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31 King James Version (KJV). 

Personally, I resent the "unsaved world" taking over our Christian Holy days making them secular holidays.  I had a member of the millennial generation doing some typing for me; I asked the question, "why are young people so unconcerned about life and living?"  She said, "We are just indifferent to it all".  I asked a black woman who works for me, "what is taught and preached in the black churches?  Don't they realize their numbers in prison, etc.", she said, "they simply don't care"...such a price Jesus paid "for it all". 

Satan has already driven the Christian message inside places of worship and very little worship goes on in the church house.  Our churches are more like civic clubs.  Look around your church and see how many crosses are on the walls.  Even the Catholics have begun to remove crucifixes from their walls.

We must get real in our belief system, in this day of casual death "abortions/euthanasia", Christianity must become real, the miles Mary walked from Nazareth to her cousin Elizabeth's house, I judge 750 miles, the millions of Jews walked along with Egyptians to take Jacob home for burial, The miles Thomas walked in crossing the Himalayas to India; there to die at Madras from a Brahma sword, Dr. Luke hanged from an olive tree in Greece, Bartholomew, skinned alive, Mark, dragged through the streets of Alexandria, Egypt, Paul beheaded, Peter crucified, the youngest disciple who joined Jesus at age 17, boiled in oil then exiled to Pat mos and there have been many others, then until now on this side of the cross, "(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth". (Hebrews 11:38 King James Version (KJV). 

Our ancestors had little light at night, but read the Bible, the answer book.  The Jews had no light, little methods of writing or reading, could not understand that Jesus would rise on the third day.  If they had understood, they would have been at the grave yard, waiting.  So, nothing surprises God, 2000 years ago or now.  Nothing surprised Him on the other side of the cross, the beguiled children of Israel or the 7 nations they had to conquer.  Nothing surprised Him before the flood of Noah, when everyone was doing what they wanted to do but, when the rains came and the water reached their nostrils, covered the highest mountain tops, and those who were saved along with the animals He chose to save, floated away, they had reason to believe.  Our time will come.

Happy Enough

Do not allow circumstances to frighten you.

Do not allow situations to torture you.

Look beyond the appearances.

Yours will be the unmistakable happiness.

-Sri Chinmoy-

Thank you, God, for loving me more than I loved myself. No acts are greater than the action of giving. Believers are faithers, faith is a verb, action based on belief sustained by confidence. No words give God more pleasure than the attention lavished on the poor and to those socialists, "do-gooders", even Jesus said, "the poor you have with you always" (Mark 14:7). When this writer, world traveler, stood with the Cuban delegation at the May Day parade, Red Square, Moscow, and the workers marched and the same in outer Mongolia, and the same in China, I knew then, as I know now, behind all their fake happy smiles, Communism is not enough. This is my answer to anyone who finds so much fault with the Western way of life.

Most of the real poor in this world live below the 30th parallel, Africa/South America/Asia. The poorest Americans live better than most people in the world.

This writer owned a condominium on the east side of Manhattan, New York City, for many years. I would spend about 1 week a month there. It was near the UN and I was friends with UN officials. I became active in a group called Volunteer Services for Children (wealthy New Yorkers who sponsored shelters or orphanages all over the world for destitute children: victims of war). One Saturday I went to a meeting of the group held at the Hilton Hotel on the Avenue of the Americas. The taxi driver would help me get into the building and from there, I would take an escalator, I could find the meeting room. One Saturday I had to go the "men's room" during the meeting and got turned around, lost my bearings and went to a groups' meeting in another room. Of course, they greeted this blind man very warmly, at the time were having coffee and doughnuts. It was a communist workers union group. One man said, "we are going to hear Gus talk this afternoon at another meeting, we would like for you to go with us since you are a traveled, Army officer veteran". By then, I realized I had made a wrong turn but saw I had nothing to lose by meeting Gus Hall, head of the Communist party in America and Presidential candidate. So I loaded into a taxi with them and went to a meeting on the West Side. I have never heard such vitriol against my country. He described, how an entire city, any city, could be burned down overnight. He called it "cigarette lighter, draperies and bed spreads fire".The plan of action, the wind just right, enough ice picks in the tires of fire trucks, enough windows broken, draperies and bed spreads set afire, just how quickly an entire city can burn down. The opportunity/responsibility/security furnished every American citizen, does not make people happy...just not enough.

I have found that most young people have a sparkle in their eyes when they talk about technology/idealism of socialism do not have such when you talk about salvation and even eternal life. They just don't believe there is anything to it, that life here on this earth is all there is, that what they endure here is enough: that the wisdom of this world is enough: that the wealth of this world is enough: that the thrills of this brief life here on earth is enough. Those at "happy hour" in your local bars and clubs, this very day, alcohol/strange music/perverted sexual experiences are enough.

Today's university student actually believes that only those things can be believed that are found in a test tube. Steven Hawkings, who died this week,  most of his life in a wheelchair, communicating through a voice synthesizer, with all his brilliance (considered to have the greatest mind since Einstein) thought that this world was enough. NOW HE KNOWS. He could have had eternal life, joys forever, where there is no ALS; where he could have spent eternity with ascending, not descending, people; where he could have lived in brightness, not darkness, forever (people who love darkness rather than light, John 3:19) but Steven thought that the fame and notoriety that he had found here on this earth because of this great gifted mind given to him by God, was enough...NOW HE KNOWS.

In speaking of unbelievers today's advances are not enough, constantly talking and planning on what comes next...a more remarkable telephone/car/sexual pleasure, never just content with anything. Inventors do not invent just for more money. Most of the upper 3% who pay most of the tax, already have enough. The builder of a bigger/better airplane does not have the goal of having robots fly the plane into the side of a mountain, a bigger/better car/driverless cars piled up on the highway/hospital operating rooms with robots in scrub clothing.

Who are the gatekeepers? Who will finally say that the human persona cannot be removed from life; that God wanted SOULS of men whom He chose for His eternal companionship.

Not until 1914 and the entrance on the world stage of National Geographic did the world not know much about "far away places with strange sounding names and their fellow man who lived there".

You appreciate the fickleness and cynicism of old people when you get there. It was not until I was in Chin Yang, Manchuria, in a communist hospital, body parts being transferred from healthy, Chinese prisoners to sick people, that I understood the importance of old people having overcome the horrors/terrorism/disappointments, of their fellow man and they could still laugh. Hearing now, almost daily, horror stories of shootings and other calamities we know that being happy, even if only for a few minutes, hours or days, will have to be enough, while on this earth. For the believer, rejoice, the time of sublime happiness is just ahead. Whatever your problem, the nation's problem, Jesus has always been at the crossroads of life before we got there. 

Life is Tough, AND THEN, you die, AND THEN???

                                     

...the anvil and the hammer to tear my soul;
the fire and the metal to mend my holes;
the blacksmith forging straight ahead;
to create this man before you instead;
the truth is my body is strong and pure;
seems the sculptor had given the cure;
but the sculpture is still an unfinished piece;
no eyes to see and no heart to beat;
to become the masterpiece I have to become;
the sculptor is myself and my hands must be strong;
cause self isn’t made by greater powers;
it must be forged in fire with an anvil and hammer.
https://allpoetry.com/poem/11760800-The-Anvil-and-The-Hammer-by-The-Marcellian

Often when you think your life is over, you may just be getting started. The anvil wears out many hammers. God is still on his throne in spite of the world, flesh, devil. Truth is truth whether anyone believes it or not.

I have been thinking much recently about those who simply refuse to believe in God. I have recently developed a painful/aggravating hernia on my abdomen (a bulge about the size of a large egg, my oncologist tells me that no surgeon is going to use a knife on me at my age and in my cancer condition). It brought on the thoughts of a family who lived near us and my talking with the oldest son in the family who, with his wife and 2 boys, lived in a house near his father's house. He had brought his wife to me as a patient. She attended church along with the boys but he never did, like his own father. Here was his excuse for not believing in God; I grew up seeing my father drive his car down to your church to take my mother who was a devout believer and then he would go back to pick her up. In my father's house, I had a younger brother (whom this writer remembers sitting in the sun on the front porch). He died at age 14, never having spoken a word, just a biological organism who was changed and fed by this dear woman. This older brother of this unbelieving father said, "the pastor of your church never went to our house the first time and never showed any interest in my mother's plight in caring for this totally invalid child and, the so-called Christian community showed little concern when our family's house burned down. How does a God of love permit such unloving acts and can this excuse my father's unbelief and consequently my own unbelief."

This son had a very painful hernia, which, as far as I know, he lived with his whole adult life, doing hard work. The thing aggravating him constantly and he, unable to come up with the funds to have anything done about it. On a farm, working in rain/heat/cold, with the insidious pain that irritates any protrusion, such as a hernia, one can easily understand why you could easily hold God responsible for problems which people from the beginning of time have endured and, why would one child of a perfectly normal loving mother, never speak, never enjoy anything that normal children would enjoy...just a burden and more important, everyone at that church saw her faithfulness in going to church; knew about her unbelieving husband and yet, no one, not even the pastor ever showed she or her family, Christan benevolence.

Dealing with suffering is a great teacher. Only a very small percentage of the population of the world never experience suffering, often used as an excuse for unbelief. Dr. Victor Frankel, himself a Jewish doctor prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp, said it was only the inner man, the want for survival, that got you through this life. The prisoners in the concentration camp knew that all they had to do was run towards a gate and a guard from the guard tower would shoot them dead and their suffering would be over.

Once we know the 'why' of living then we can concentrate on the 'how' of living. Those who are disabled, those who understand inequities, know that God is ultimately in charge; it is just a matter of trusting Him. Blindness has been my greatest blessing because I am much closer to God now than when sighted BUT I have the mental ability to understand this. Who would have ever known Helen Keller if she had not overcome both blindness and muteness? When Hitler started his book burning her book was at the top of the list to be destroyed. The first people to be destroyed were the disabled/gypsies/hospitalized. God put the first man and woman He created in a perfect world, a perfect environment. He made only one provision in His dealing with mankind "don't touch that tree!". Man has always rebelled, and mankind has always paid the price.

How can anyone doubt God any more than you can doubt history or the world around you? We could easily use Pascal's wager instead of attempting to persuade the unsaved about the love of God. Pascal said "what do you have to lose by believing, if you believe and it is true you have inherited eternal life with God in His Glory. If it does not turn out to be true and you do not have a soul, your body just becomes fertilizer, what have you lost? You lived a life of beautiful absolutes. The absolutes of right and wrong, of loving one another, you win either way".

Christianity is not completed, just tough. Belief in God is a matter of the heart. He will draw you if He wants you and He is perfectly willing to accept you just as you are, willing to forgive every sin which you are willing to give up.

Reverend Billy Graham

Billy Graham R.I.P. (rest in peace). Your writer is from the Billy Graham generation.  He was a part of the family.  Sightless, I could not watch the funeral service on television but I listened to it and 1 of my assistance described everything to me.

Every Christian should be so profoundly appreciative that the service not only honored this great preacher but every speaker/prayer/song, so completely honored Jesus Christ.  Most of today's millennia's have never worshipped under a tent, or a brush arbor (tree limbs over a large area protecting you from the sun and rain).  Even in the wealthiest Manhattan skyscrapers Jews still use such for a type of worship, celebrating, not forgetting their time in the desert.  I worshipped under a brush arbor in Africa and went to many tent services here in eastern North Carolina.

The service was truly worthy of the man and the Lord who he served.  I was told by 1 of his assistants with the association during the many crusades, that they had to be so careful about everywhere Billy stayed making sure there was no one with satanic purposes which the media would have devoured; above his hotel room, below his hotel room or on either side attempting to get into his room to embarrass him and the Christian world.  No one ever heard 1 word about Graham's lack of integrity...perhaps his 5 children who spoke were a testimony of his influence and devotion in his own family.  Nor, was there attempt at extravagance in his burial.

The world will little remember the lives of most Christians.  So many worship services have become just big productions.  I so loved the preaching ministry of Dr. R.G. Lee, long time pastor, Bellevue Baptist, Memphis Tennessee.  In these sunset years of my life I regret that he was self-centered.  I would hear him say, "If I tell my people to jump in the river, I will hear water splash.  If I tell my people to jump in the fire I will smell clothes burning".  Humility/meekness is a grace which Christians should learn early in life and this writer/speaker had a very hard time learning it.  I've often considered this when I saw a pastor head for the foyer to shake the hands of those in the congregation and get their praise for his sermon.  If truly effective they should have been weeping and many times, a truly knowledgeable Christian should have walked out of some services where the preacher did not understand what he was talking about.  I suppose most of us were content to sit there and pray for god's mercy.

I believe more unsaved people are touched or face death and their own souls' salvation at a funeral service such as the Billy Graham service than any revival meeting...where; so many times it is just a matter of signing a card (joining the church), perhaps even baptized.  I truly believe that those watching and listening to the Billy Graham funeral service knew that the mans faith was real, that Jesus, his power/grace/mercy/salvation, are real.

My parents never kept any of the realities of life and living from me and death is a part of life.  I still remember the 1st funerals as a very small child.  Before the time of antibiotics, around 1943, there were so many deaths from even simple diseases.  My mother's best friend, Rosell, died from the flu and I remember standing with her at the grave sight.  Death, the grave, the grave yard, was such a mystery to me.  In later years, I spent much time studying grave yards, my ancestral names, the dates, that hyphen between the date of birth and death, wondering what the person was like, wondering about their problems.  I rejoice in knowing that my family, the church where we worshipped (built by my ancestors in 1874) did not hesitate to emphasize heaven and hell, that there is no neutral place just as this Billy Graham service. 

One of my funeral home friends tells me that death has been greatly sanitized, that most families no longer even go to the funeral home.  "Just put him next to 'the cheapest casket you have and cover it with the church pall', no one will see the casket anyway'.  They don't even want to look at the deceased member; they just want to get it over with".  Jesus wept when his friend Lazarus died.  Today, the saved have reason to rejoice/celebrate when believers die because "Jesus paid it all, in his death on the cross".

I was at St. Mary's Catholic cemetery in London where I had searched for Francis Thompson "love is a many splendored thing".  A simple casket covered with an American flag, pulled on a cart followed by a woman in a wheel chair, pushed by a Catholic priest was the entire funeral cortege.  I went back to the gravesite where the workmen had already started throwing dirt on the casket.  I reached down and took her gloved hand, "I am an American".  She handed me the battle flag which had covered the casket.  The priest said, "She is not very cognitive but appreciates you being here.  They met in WWII and she was in a nursing home, separate from the 1 where he died.  Soon they will be together again". 

Interrogating the Interrogator

Would thou still stand before me? , asked God, 
If I can no longer wash thy sins. 
Would thou still read my scriptures? , 
If I can no longer offer thee a place in heaven. 
Would thou still sing my praise? , 
If I can no longer grant thy selfish desires. 
Would thou still want to meet me? , 
If I no longer have my magical powers. 
No! Never! , said Man, 
Otherwise, I am not Human. 

Pradeep Dhavakumar

Our most valuable possession, our soul created for our conversation with God. It has been my experience in dealing with believers and nonbelievers that our greatest failures, we talk with God but do not listen when God talks with us.

Possession is far greater than professing, and we all have had our days of doubts and fears when all we need to do is just TRUST JESUS.

One of my first experiences in learning to trust Jesus, freshman college student, UNC-Chapel Hill, there at this great university, where I was completely unprepared for any college (from a small country school, 13 in my graduating class, less than 100 in the entire high school) but, there I was competing with the states best from large city schools/prep schools/wealthiest, most powerful families in the state and, it was necessary for me to work as well as take courses. My money had completely run out and my job (at the medical school) was not to pay me for several days and I needed money for food.  I was sitting on a stoned fence behind the Wilson Library, across from the Bell Tower, interrogating my interrogator whether I should call my father to come get me. I knew there was plenty of food at home. Having been given this great opportunity for education and, for the first time in my life, feeling that I was truly where I should be for mental challenge I was so ashamed to give in and give up. But, I told God, just as Job told God, "though you slay me, yet will I trust in You" (Job 13:15). God said to me, just as if he were speaking from the Bell Tower across the street, "in the library of the medical school where you work are large leather chairs. Money falls out of the pockets of those who sit in those chairs, you might want to search those chairs". And so, that night at work, (I worked in the medical school library) I found enough money to keep me going for many days. And so, from pulpits in churches, speakers platforms at civic clubs, my message has always been "though I have failed God many times, He has never failed me". And, now at age 87, body eaten up by cancer, a totally blind veteran for 50 years, I still listen when He speaks.

I was raised in a country church, built 1874 by great-grandparents on both sides of my family, fortunate enough to have known many saints in the family and community but I do not remember as a child, ever hearing preachers talk about this. What a shame that today's parents, today's church members, today's preachers do not talk to the disabled/dying about listening as well as asking. It is like the phrase, homeless veterans, there should be no such person as a  homeless veteran. What is wrong with the veterans groups, American Legion, American Red Cross, BVA, DVA and even churches and civic clubs who put out so much propaganda about their concern for veterans, not yet, has 1 veterans group, 1 church, 1 civic club ever come to my front door about helping me with anything but that is all right, God reminds me every day that He is all I need and we all know the assorted story about veterans administration ineptness. As a medical officer, army hospitals, veterans hospitals, politicians, they just don't care.

No matter what has happened to you, life cannot be afforded. you just thank God for life and living. I write on a piece of paper my prayers and 1 line is always there "take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee".

Yet, there must be laughter and enjoyment along with responsibility and the serious side of life. There is nothing wrong with enjoying good food, a good joke, good entertainment, even good clothing and an expensive car or expensive home. God does not bless us in order for us to live like paupers. He expects our best and will load us down with His best. I have seen ships go through both the Panama and Suez canals. They do not always wait for the locks to completely fill with water. There are times when God allows us to cut corners. We are all waiting for 84,600 seconds a day and He does not expect us to keep our nose to the grindstone every second; have some fun/a hobby. Just remember at the end, you cannot relive/purchase back 1 second that you have just thrown away; not even if you have as much money as Oprah or Bill Gates and his wife.

When you get my age you realize just how short life is but for believers we have already started living an eternal existence. This is just a "boot camp" here on this earth where God is determining if He wants us around forever, if we are worthy of His Glory. Just think, the Creator of the universe, the power, grace, mercy who through the stars into space, can measure the Himalaya's with his fingers, who actually took time to dictate a book for us live by "The Holy Bible". And most believers do not even take the time from a life of frolic with unbelievers to read and rejoice in this answer book...the 1 book in the world that has answers to every question, the 1 book in the world that tells us about a Savior by whose life we obtain salvation as a gift, by whose birthday every check/every document is written. Millions of dollars are spent each year by mystified human beings seeking answers from a psychologist or psychiatrist. One of the greatest mysteries of the modern day church, to a member or other having problems, a believer in God sends them to someone who does not believe in God to get an answer. God has told us "Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).

My only child, my son, seminary professor, for many years a missionary on the mission field, said that on the mission field, an illness, new believers would pray before they even consulted a doctor. One of the last times I was ever in a churchhouse, a men's bible study, and they were all so happy to have me there. I began to feel like I was going to pass out. Patients have told me that when they get that feeling they soon hit the floor. So, I said to the fine man sitting next to me, I am very ill, I must leave. I apologized to the group and told them I was too sick to stay. The entire group began to pray and by the time I was driven to my house I was fine. 

God can heal cancer if he chooses to do so. "For with God nothing shall be impossible" (Luke 1:37). And to think there are so many so-called believers who never go to the Lord's table. "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 King James Version)

Cardinal with Purple Stripes

“Deliver me, O Jesus:

From the desire of being esteemed

From the desire of being loved

From the desire of being honored

From the desire of being praised

From the desire of being preferred to others

From the desire of being consulted

From the desire of being approved

From the desire of being popular.

Deliver me, O Jesus:

From the fear of being humiliated

From the fear of being despised

From the fear of being rebuked

From the fear of being slandered

From the fear of being forgotten

From the fear of being wronged

From the fear of being treated unfairly

From the fear of being suspected

And, Jesus, grant me the grace

To desire that others might be more loved than I

That others might be more esteemed than I

That in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I decrease

That others may be chosen and I set aside

That others may be preferred to me in everything

That others may become holier than I, provided that I, too, become as holy as I can.” 

                                                  (Mother Theresa, A Simple Path)

You want to raise a child not just with the absence of pathology but with the presence of virtue. How many times have I heard a parent say that he or she is a good kid when I knew they were as rotten as they could get. I always felt when I met a nice boy or girl...polite, industrious, the greatest compliment I could give a parent is "you have done a good job".

We are all just a car crash away, just a choking from a piece of meat away, just a strike of lightning away from eternity. Like finding a canary with purple stripes, we just don't think it will happen to us. Those of you who are sighted when you look in the mirror, it is always you. Those of us who are blind have no use for a mirror. Purple striped canaries could fly all around us and we would know nothing about it. and, mentally sick, deranged evil people, young and old are all around us and we want to pretend that they are not there; schoolhouse, courthouse, church house, even your house. Where did the people come from that fill our prisons? And they are the ones that got caught.

Every human being, from the beginning of time, is an individual. Of the 7 billion people living on earth today not another 1 is like you...even identical twins. You have a soul/assigned a guardian angel. The best surgeon in the world, using the sharpest scalpel cutting your body into very small pieces and using the most powerful microscope, cannot find your soul. Your soul is you given to you by God. The difference in the specie homosapiens from other species of animal life, both with back bones and without back bones, We have a mind and a soul, we know we are going to die. We have a brain of trillions of cells multiple trillions of synapses, can we even imagine someone killing the most magnificent creation of God, whether abortion or murder? What does a worm or termite "think" as he looks at 1 of us? And yet, we have evil, mentally sick people who will kill 1 of us as if we are a paramecium or housefly.

There is no such thing in the world as a purple striped canary, only the human mind could imagine one. No mother would believe that her sweet, innocent child, black or white, privileged or poor, smart or stupid, would mature to kill anyone, and yet, in this "so called" christian nation, our prisons are full of criminals.

Many years ago, your writer, world traveler (passports stamped in 157 countries ,8 round the world trips including both poles) went on a gorilla photography safari into mid-Africa...the Congo. My God told me, advised me ahead of time that I would be protected by Pygmies "real small people"; no education-never shoes-never  hygiene. Their fellow man in Africa actually roast them on fire and eat them. I went to a thrift store before I left and bought many used, college t-shirts, used advertising ball caps as gifts for them.My God said, "this is the greatest day of their life". I got into a wasp nest and they completely covered me, protecting me from stings". We invaded the gorilla  habitat but they were civil about the whole thing, much more than the wasps.

We live in a world where we mortgage tomorrow for today. We think that things are so important to us, cell phones/computers/bottomless ocean of technology.

The Holy Spirit of God wants no part in pride. We must get humble enough to pray for God's help with these tragedies such as the killing of school children. Every church should have special prayer, every civic club should have special programs about parenting because the value of life starts at the home.

During WWII even at our poor country church, a banner hung in the front of the church with a star for every boy in the community away at the war. Every church service those old people would go to the altar and pray for them. If 1 were killed  a gold star would be placed on the banner. At the end of WWII there was not 1 loss, not 1 gold star on the banner. We must approach the raising and maturing, preparation for life with its trials, of our young people the same way.

Seasons

According to scripture as well as life and living, everything is divided into seasons.

Perhaps the most famous season, the Christmas season; when friends/family/associates spend money they don't have on things that people don't particularly need or want...just to be able give someone something. There was a time I found on this heathen practice, having turned a holy day into a holiday, the most important day of the year celebrating the birth of Christ, into giving and getting but I changed my mind about that years ago. God, the greatest giver gave those he chose, life; and Jesus has given us, through his sacrifice, eternal life. This miracle must be evident even to unbelievers, those who never put a foot inside a church house.

Just before Christmas, and rapidly overshadowing Christmas and spending and spreeing, Halloween. When even children from christian families and churches go about their community in costume, "trick or treat, trick or treat". I understand more money is spent on Halloween than on Christmas. I will never understand how a church can celebrate a satanic event.

Then, there is the Easter season, the 2nd most important holiday/holy day of the year, when Christians celebrate a risen savior. What do rabbits laying colored eggs or chocolate eggs have to do with Easter? And yet, as with Santa Claus, as with ugly haints, perhaps there is a place for such in a child's life. As poor as we were, my mother would go to town and get us a chocolate egg with our name on it. This is a wonderful memory, but let's get to real seasons. Those of us in the USA, at least most of the USA, have real seasons to the year, spring, summer, fall and winter with the guidelines of temperature change.

Spring season; new life, seed in the ground, the ever lasting hope of a harvest. Summer; heat and the frustration of outdoor labor, sweat, which is the best anti-toxicity remedy in the world. Most of today's young people have never known a real summer job...sweating in the fields...even sweating cutting grass. Like the golfer who wants exercise, they want to ride a lawn mower just as a golfer rides a golf cart. I know I am peculiar. I have peculiarities you do not know anything about but I always cut my grass with a push mower. No engine at all, just my pushing it. I never put up a Christmas tree, not one; but for those who want to spend their money on trees and lights to celebrate my saviors birth, that is their business. Some communities are completely lit up with 1000s of lights spread over houses. All that equipment/light bulbs/electricity, and they probably don't give anything for God's work such as the needs all around them, hungry children, etc.

Then there is the flu season when people spend so much money in Dr's offices, hospitals, fighting a "wee beasty" which gives them much suffering for a few weeks. Just taking supplements and basic hygiene would eliminate most flu. Yes, I know, your Dr has probably told you that if you eat a good diet you do not need supplements. I know how little we Dr's are taught about supplements. Today's soil is depleted of most important elements. Plants will grow, USA or Brazil or Mexico but they do not have the nutrients needed to keep you healthy and, the animal products you eat, meat, no longer has the nutrition which you need. Our founding fathers could grow beautiful, healthy, nutritious vegetables in soil which had not been depleted. They ate meat from animals which were healthy. Even ate healthy seafood.

Perhaps the most radical season of change that I have witnessed in my lifetime, the political/presidential election season every 4 years. The less important, mid election, every 2 years. The founding fathers did not seek office. After much encouragement, they would just stand for office (stand) supported by people who knew them, knew their integrity/ability/honesty. Today's politicians are like dragging the bottom of a hog pen and as Joseph Kennedy said, (father of President Kennedy) it takes 3 things to get elected president, 3 rules. First is money, 2nd is money and 3rd is more money. Most political offices from the local courthouse to the state house, to the white house, are bought and paid for. From the lowly local commissioner, alderman/mayor, to the legislative senator or representative...all you have to do is win an election 1 time and you are set for life. My friend, governor, Terry Sanford, then senator, then president of Duke University, got rich...not from politics or anything else he had done with his life, rather, being appointed to so many corporate positions on boards. The lowliest corporation pays their trustees at least 1$00,000 and most former politicians sit on several. Plus, former presidents/vice presidents/senators/representatives all get wonderful retirement checks. The Clinton's claim they had no money when they left the white house. It is amazing how rich they got afterward just giving short speeches before wealthy people.

Ecclesiastes 3 King James Version (KJV) 3 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; 3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. King James Version (KJV) Most of us who live long enough will live through all these seasons. There is nothing wrong with laughter, nothing wrong with weeping. Death is a matter of life. The mortality rate is still 100% and we all need the experience of seasons...feeling hot, feeling cold, feeling happy, feeling sad, disappointments, celebrations. Life is not about falling but about learning to pick ourselves up when we do.

EDGE OF FEAR

The Silken Tent by Robert Frost

She is as in a field a silken tent
At midday when the sunny summer breeze
Has dried the dew and all its ropes relent,
So that in guys it gently sways at ease,
And its supporting central cedar pole,
That is its pinnacle to heavenward
And signifies the sureness of the soul,
Seems to owe naught to any single cord,
But strictly held by none, is loosely bound
By countless silken ties of love and thought
To every thing on earth the compass round,
And only by one's going slightly taut
In the capriciousness of summer air
Is of the slightest bondage made aware.

Portray something around those who are supposed to know and you will find that they don't always know. You must live an entire life before you know about life and living.

When I was a child, I loved to build fortresses, a protective barrier to get behind. and then, after a long education/military career, I was blessed to travel the world and saw the many walled cities...such a part of history "Jerusalem, Jericho, Dubrovnik", and many others which I have visited. Early history, those working in the fields outside the walls, always had a fortress or barrier to which they could flee. Protecting oneself is almost as part of human nature as breathing. Most young people think history began the day they were born. People of my age (87) knew what it was to daydream. The escape of daydreaming and, I must admit, even in my youth, many escaped the realities of life looking at the bottom of a liquor bottle or an addiction to soap operas on radio and then television. So many people of my age can still talk about "Stella Dallas", "Ma Perkins" or "Portia Faces Life"; then came General Hospital or Guiding Light.

Today, the escape is addictive drugs, both prescription and those purchased on the street. My biggest problem with VA nurses sent to my house by the VA, the theft of my meds. The biggest problems in hospitals, nursing homes, the theft of opiates which can be easily sold. Now all those crocodile tears from the fake liberal newscast about addiction/the opioid epidemic and warnings about not being able to buy over the counter meds for fear that one's home or car will be turned into a meth lab business.

It never ceases to amaze me the escapism of modern day living, alcohol/pills/food, and brain manipulation via modern technology (tv, computers, pornographic and other magazines).

Next to my beach house, a house full of young college men who played games day and night. They even got into the insanity of portraying the characters; weird costumes; comic book addictions. So many young boys and girls wear black all the time... even attend conventions where fantasy and fantasizing is lauded.

It is impossible to penetrate these minds, doors without handles. investigating these anti-social human beings you find that you are drilling dry holes in a vast desert of fantasy land.

Such a change, the time when young men acted like gentlemen and young girls were debonaire. Girls actually held dance cards. At Wake Forest, professors would walk around with a ruler; boys and girls had to dance 12" apart. At Meredith, the girls could not wear black patten leather shoes for fear boys could look up their dress. Now, anything goes...just hook up. It is much like hooking up a mule to a plow, life in the raw.

So, why is this Dr., military officer, writer, world traveler, so cynical? We become cyncical because we become both amused and disgusted with what goes on in the human brain...so called normal people. We know that there are the mentally ill. One of my medical officer friends who worked in an asylum told me that he did not know how in the world they handled the mentally sick before the time of tranquilizers. AND it is something you must learn to do yourself. In the answer book which God took time to write and give to us, He speaks of our keeping a "clean mind", thinking good thoughts, love, and trust. Don't expect the government to clean minds at the church house, schoolhouse, White House or even your house. We are all sitting on the edge of fear concerning Alzheimer's and other mental disorders. 365 times God told us in His word not to fear. It is so important for children to have healthy hobbies. Mental health is as important as physical health.

When Dogs Talk

Take a look at your past and thank God. Then look to your future and trust God. Now, take a look all around you and serve God. Look within yourself and find God.

Your writer has traveled the world, 8 around the world trips, passports stamped in 157 countries, I have never been in a country, even Muslim, where there were not dogs. If 1 dog ever talked, then we would know that dogs can talk. I had a long time employed bookkeeper that declared to me, that she loved her dog more than family, friends or anything else on this earth, and he talked to her. But she never disclosed what the dog said.

Some people believe that you can predict the weather with a groundhog or the outer coating of a caterpillar. The 1 in the picture has a very dark coat which predicts a hard winter. God has control of the weather like he has control of everything else. When anyone tells me that they want an explanation for the unfairness of God "deaths of small children-horror stories about hurricanes or earthquakes" I tell them that these events are as impossible to predict as the weather.

I am 87 and cannot remember such a hard/cold winter as we have had this year. I believe we can attribute much of the flu epidemic to the weather. and yet, those of us reared in the country so remember those old houses where we lived, the outhouses, the severe weather on livestock. As a child, I was always listening. I still remember my mother and maternal grandmother talking about the great flu epidemic of 1918 when millions died. I'm willing to concede that probably about 1 percent of the population had indoor plumbing, even in the towns, they knew little about toothbrushes or toothpaste. Sanitation which we consider rudimentary. They knew nothing of supplements; few had radios or any formal education enough to read the few newspapers which could educate about prevention. Things stay in your mind that you never forget. My parents came from landowning homes, large plantations but they, like the people in town, like the schools, especially the black schools, and most churches had outside toilet facilities, hand pumps or open wells for water. Most of today's young people think history began the day they were born. They should think of what life was like 1000 or even 2000 years ago, just the basics of hygiene.

In the community where my parents were reared the flu hit very hard. Only 1 doctor, Dr. Hayes, would even go into the community. Both he and his horse (he had a horse and buggy) died from this plague. My mothers' young brother died. Her aunt, the schoolteacher in the community, died. (2 room school, aunt Cattie, for whom my mother was named). She gave birth to a baby boy just before her death. My great uncle Turner, her brother, whom I remember, took this newborn baby up to the aunt's house (aunt Lizzie) who had recently given birth to a baby.. called to them and told them to get the baby (the flu had not hit their house) and she nursed both babies. I had never understood why this man had a different last name from Aunt Lizzie and her family even though he was her son until I learned about his survival. My grandmother, the most saintly woman I have ever known, said those laying in the great plantation house, which is still there, which survived the civil war; when they started coughing they knew that death awaited them. The men, strong enough, were working building wood boxes to bury them. No preachers/no out of community family members would come into the community. It took the civil war for surgeons to learn to wash their hands before surgery. It took the flu epidemic for people to learn that exposure to those with it was the reason for contagion.

At civic clubs, scientific meetings, even AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) where I have had memberships and where some would actually listen to me; I have "preached sanitation" as the only preventive to contagious diseases. Most children walk around with a telephone in their pocket that contains more technology than when man went to the moon. Yet the most fundamental of scientific facts are still neglected by the science community. These things at the end of your arms, with 5 tentacles called fingers, are the causes of most disease. Yet, because it is a habit we "charming" humans continue to grasp 1 another's fingers not knowing where they have been, not realizing that they are the poison in the well. It will take me a long time to forgive the 100's of medical schools and science foundations that have neglected prevention; willing to sit by while 1000's die from an easily preventable microbiology dilemma. Like malaria in Africa, where I saw so many die, like starvation in many parts of the world, like women carrying jugs all day long to find potable water, the dog has barked and we know that sanitation and prevention talks.

On 1 of my around the world trips, I had 48 flights...many airplanes...many people...some well, some sick. Planes are just germ crucibles that fly through the air. When will hospitals and Dr's offices learn that carpeting/overstuffed chairs/draperies serve as harbor refuge for germs? I do not get out very much, my blindness, my cancer, etc., when I go out to eat with my friend, here they come; people I know and love, wanting to shake my hand while I am eating with my hands. Have you noticed that most people go to the bathroom only when they go to a restaurant? Did they wash their hands? If you really want to get sick, if you really want to spend some government tax dollars, just handle a few stair rails, a few doorknobs and the dirtiest, the most loved item known to man, fiat money. I still remember in my practice when women would pull out money from all over their body to pay me. I still recline from the touch of money. "Paper money can harbor thousands of microbes from every environment it touches—whether that’s someone’s fingers, a waiter’s apron, a vending machine or the dank area under someone’s mattress. Other research has shown that some bank notes and coins contain pathogens like Escherichia coli (E. coli), salmonella and staphylococcusaureus, which can lead to serious illness". (http://time.com/4918626/money-germs-microbes-dirty/).

I get so tired of today's spoiled young people. My mothers only surviving sister died last year died at the age of 96. She graduated from Louisburg college, 1936. Now, remember my folks came from plantations with large plantation houses. She had met some young man who came down to visit her unexpectedly 1 day. He said he needed to go to the bathroom and all she could do was point to a path. He had never been to an outhouse like most of todays spoiled young people. He got into his little car and left. This small child tried to comfort her as she laid on the bed crying not knowing I would eventually face the same embarrassment; particularly at the church house (where we were ashamed to invite our friends) or our own homes. There was not inside plumbing in our home until long after I had graduated from college and served our country in the military. Today, poverty areas of eastern North Carolina and many places of the world, such still exist, in spite of banks-security dealers-universities. 

Post Mark from Paradise

Michelangelo's David, housed in Florence's Accademia Gallery, is one of the most famous works of art, period.

If

By Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Source: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/if-by-rudyard-kipling

Americans are known for broken convictions; then aims, limits, and possibilities are just wishful thinking. A man never starves because he did not take time to eat. Unbelievers in God actually believe that all problems can be solved by human technology. Technology has nothing to do with talent. When will we learn that history did not begin the day we were born? When will we learn that everyone does not think as we think? When will we learn that some minds are superior to others? Let's talk about Michaelangelo, many have seen the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, can anyone actually imagine a man lying on his back, all those years to paint that ceiling?

This world traveler (passport stamped in 157 countries)/8 around the world trips including both poles, has had the pleasure of visiting many museums. The most famous museum in the world, has only 1 item, Michaelangelo's Statue of David. This magnificent sculpture is 13 feet tall, perfection. The artist was looking for a piece of marble from which to sculpt this great work of art. It was all in his head, his mind, not a normal mind. He went to a marble quarry and saw a large piece of marble laying near the entrance discarded by men because they were seeking to build one of the many edifices in Italy. He said, "I saw David in that discarded slab of marble, it was a matter of chipping away and letting David come out". He sculpted the most famous artwork in the world from a discarded slab of marble. His famous sculpture of Moses, which I have seen, housed in the church of San Pietro in Rome, was so lifelike when he finished, he hit Moses with his hammer and said: "Speak to me".

What do all robbers, killers, and lovers have in common...a mother. The year I was a freshman and UNCCH, I was hitchhiking home attempting to catch a ride across from NC Central Prison. In a large field next to the prison there was a panel truck and some men digging a grave. Next to the truck, a cheap cardboard coffin. Of course, I had my suitcase with UNC all over it and they began to yell at me about Carolina's ball teams. I went over to speak to them, not realizing that this was the graveyard for prisoners. I said, "what is going on?" One said, "we have a dead one that will never bother anyone else. Would you like to see him"? I said," no, I'll pass". The thought occurred to me that this dead man in this cheap coffin was some mother's son, no one to mourn, no one to even read some scripture over his body. I realize then as I do now that he was a loving baby, a cute schoolchild. Why did he go wrong and contribute nothing to the world? What is the difference between a dead prisoner and a live Michaelangelo? Both had mothers, both were blessed by God with eyes, hands, minds...what is the difference? 

Anyone crazy enough to kill another person, to rob or rape, does not think like the rest of us. Anyone with the magnificence of mind (God's chief creation) such as a Michaelangelo or Einstein or even a Bill Gates does not think like the rest of us. A message from paradise from those saints who are already there; skin of different colors, minds of different abilities, DNA of different genes...only one message, the only thing important in life and living, your personal relationship with God through his son, Jesus Christ. "(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." http://biblehub.com/kjv/hebrews/11-38.htm 

Let's face it, we live in a world of feel-good religiosity, feel-good civic clubs, feel-good parenting, it makes no difference how much you have been in the church house, if you as a parent are not concerned about the destiny of your child, heaven or hell, you have failed as a parent. If you as a politician are not concerned about your country, those who have given lives, limbs, eyes, health for your country your country has failed. It simply makes one feel good to do good. You can give without loving but you cannot love without giving whether time or money, at the church house, schoolhouse or your house. 

Generosity in time or money is not a feeling but an action. Faith is action based on belief, sustained by confidence. 

Vacuums and Vulgarities

This morning, Jan 23rd, we learned about a tsunami off the coast of Alaska. Yesterday we heard of an earthquake in Chile. The best way to explain or determine the unexpecteds in our own lives, and the lives of others, is to know that very few things are predictable. The weather is entirely unpredictable. The largest word in the English language is the word 'why'. Trying to explain to a family whose family members have been killed in an accident or fire; trying to explain to someone with cancer why they have that dreaded disease. You have heard this writer say many times there is not a maverick molecule in the universe. God is in control and we must learn to trust him.

The greatest blessing of God to man is free will. We have the freedom to make decisions when we hear the vulgarities of "Hollywood life". The vacuum in heads of people who do evil things, it all comes back to that lifelong question "why?". Why would parents chain up their children in a home?; why would men, who know better, assault women?; and more important why do those women who have experienced assault wait so long to report it when they know the law is on their side?

Most of the time, the problem is, there is not enough interest by law enforcement in enforcing the law. In my own life, since I sleep in the summer with my window open, I heard child abuse across the street from me yet, could get no one to do anything about it.

I own an office complex where wild foxes are hiding, coming out to play around sometimes during the day, unafraid of human beings. I feel sure they are rabid, one of the worlds most horrible diseases, untreatable, incurable. I have reported this midtown, mid-city location many times and yet nothing is done.

It is so easy to criticize law enforcement, politicians, unconcerned parents; even children recognize hypocrisy. It is so easy to criticize church people, educators, professional people. So many were baptized but were never evangelized. So many can sing a patriotic tune but escape patriotism when it comes to taxes.

Most of us hate losing more than we love winning. There are many weights that hold us back. The most important one in my experience, is we care more about what people think of us than what God knows about us. Work up a good appetite by making yourself vulnerable to the needs of others. My favorite hymn, "others lord yes others, let this my motto be. Help me to live for others that I may be more like thee".

Years ago, I heard a famous orthopedic surgeon, spine surgeon discuss how he had eliminated most spinal surgery from his practice, perhaps the most common complaint in any primary care office (back pain). Dr. David Halscom (Back in Control) said that it is so simple to rid yourself of back pain, to get rid of the need for spine surgery. https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=dr+david+hanscom&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=241579028334&hvpos=1t1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16018053371189253868&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9010074&hvtargid=kwd-298730535556&ref=pd_sl_8h2j9xuzfb_b I advise anyone to get his book and study it to learn about what I am going to discuss here. He said, each morning, take 15 minutes and write, by hand, on a piece of paper, everything in your system for which you have not forgiven others and for which others have not forgiven you. GET IT ALL OUT OF YOUR SYSTEM. Your sinful nature-forgiveness for the sinful nature of others. Get it all on paper. Then, tear up the paper and throw it in the trash.

Years ago, with one disease I was treating, I used this very unusual method of treating myself. My family, friends, associates, would just laugh about my treatment along with the fact that I used so many supplements. One VA dr told me I was the king of supplement taking. All I know, at 87, though totally blind, which I turned over to God 50 years ago, I have enjoyed decent health; but after I saw great improvement, other than my usual prayers and daily communion service (the taking of a small piece of bread and a simple wine) showing the memory of what our blessed Lord did on Calvary Castle Rock (But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5) Last year we found that cancer had spread all over my body. Along with experimental drugs, I am doing everything possible to battle this disease. The victory has already been won. Jesus died for my salvation as well as my healing.

When will people go to the answer book to find answers to all their questions, solutions for all their problems?