Saturday, August 29, 2009

We've Lost Our Way

I can never remember the day when I was in so much of a hurry to go somewhere or get something done I had put others around me in danger. I believe I’ve practiced safety and respect my whole life, but I’ll bet there were times I didn’t. I guess with age and maturity we naturally tend to slow down, I mean, what’s the hurry? How fast do I want to get to my own funeral? You know what they say about a busy person, “He’ll be late for his own viewing.” Well anyway, have you noticed over the past several years how people don’t have time to stop, even at STOP signs? I remember a driver’s education campaign years ago promoting “defensive driving”. Now maybe I’m being picky here, but normally the defensive team does everything it can to stop the offensive team from reaching its goal, right? So, when I’m driving to the grocery store am I on the defensive team or the offensive team? I tend to think offensive, but it seems lately everyone else is driving defensively attempting to prevent me from reaching my goal, the grocery store. Hey, all I’m saying is red lights and stop sings are what they mean, STOP! It seems the “California Stop”, slow down but don’t relinquish any territory, is epidemic and a lot of drivers are entering intersections with no respect for their fellow travelers. I have recently broken a bad habit, which I think is behind all this. I was a left foot braker, you know, left foot break, right foot accelerator, at the same time. I think that’s why people run stop signs and drive through the front door of their favorite grocery store. Give the brain too many choices at once and bad things are going to happen.
Driving to the office on the interstate one morning, a man looked to his left and there was a woman, pulling past him going about 75 mph, with her face up next to her rear view mirror putting on her eyeliner! Before he knew it, she was drifting over into his lane, still working on her make-up. It scared him so badly he dropped his electric shaver, which knocked the doughnut out of his hand. Then in all the confusion of trying to straighten out the car, using his knees against the steering wheel, his cell phone dropped away from his ear and fell into the cup of coffee, which he was holding between his legs. The coffee splashed out burning his thigh and ruining his phone and disconnecting an important call. After telling his story at the office he added, “Stupid women drivers!” Hey! Where’s the love here! Go look in the mirror pal!
[Matthew 9: 35-38] The world, our nation and we as a people, have lost our way. Matthew wrote about Jesus, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” We are harassed by the evil one night and day. Self-satisfaction has become more important than our journey through life as servants to one another in God’s love. Mankind is convinced that a satisfying life is one of wealth and me, me, me. STOP! Look around! What has it all accomplished? All we seem to have done in the past fifty years is push God out of the way because He demands too much thought, energy and time, more well spent on improving life. So, drugs and alcohol and tobacco, free sex and abortion, un-natural lifestyles and out-of-control greed are improvements on life? Life is for learning of the Creator and the will for His creation. God will not put up with our ignoring Him much longer; wasting the life and country, He has given us. Look at world history.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

What Are You Sacrificing?

Heads up! It’s getting somewhat dangerous just to walk down the street or work in the yard, that is if you’re around any trees. No. not lightning silly, we haven’t seen any of that in a long time. The severity of the drought has some trees in a survival mode of “limb dropping”. Trees are simply rejecting large limbs literally cutting them off from water and nutrient until they snap off and fall. I’ve noticed a lot of the annual “new growth” on my pecan trees lying on the ground day after day, after being sacrificed to maintain life. Looks like no pecans this year. I can understand the plight of the trees, because rough times have forced me to sacrifice some things in my life in order to survive. It’s only natural I guess, because without sacrifice, life can crumble needlessly.
While President Harry S. Truman was in office, there was an attempt to assassinate him. Endeavoring to protect the President, one of his guards was slain. With deep solemnity and sadness, the President commented, “You can’t understand how a man feels when someone else dies for him.” I would think, after such an experience, that the remainder of life would become very special. After all, without the self-sacrifice of that guard, the President wouldn’t have had those remaining years. Each day would seem very precious, it having been purchased for him by the shedding of another man’s blood.
Recently I’ve been witness to “the other side of the coin”, so to speak. I don’t want to get into a rant here, but there are people in this country who are “cutting off their nose to spite their face”. Professed citizens of this great “Christian” country are out to remove their very heritage, the foundation of liberty, mainly the Christian religion, along with its ethics and moral reasoning, to produce a more “world friendly” society, and it’s slowly being accomplished. But, like the man who is mad at his wife, so he burns down the house, like an idiot, he didn’t realize he was also burning down his own house and all his beloved personal belongings. Removing God from our schools has made our school campuses war zones. Those brought up outside the Bible are now running (ruining) our country. Your grandchildren will probably become nothing more than government robots surviving day by day sacrificing more and more liberties just to survive.
[Deuteronomy 32: 1-47] There are those who argue that not all our forefathers were of the same belief when it comes to Christianity, but I don’t think anyone can prove to me that they weren’t all God fearing. A lot of sacrificing went on for “religious freedom” and the building of a nation for the freedom of religion. Take Christianity away, neutralize it, and the constitution of this country will default. The same is true with the Christian faith. Take away the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus and there is no hope for ever being with God in paradise. Jesus sacrificed His life that we might live forever. Here on earth? NO! There is life after death, if not, why live in the first place? Oh yeh, the theory of evolution thing. Do our children know the meaning of theory? Their probably not taught that any more than their taught the real history of our country. Moses told Joshua, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. They are not just idle words for you – they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” One generation away from apostasy.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Who You Going To Believe?

I went to the doctor this past Friday for another vocal cord inspection. We had some concern three months ago about one of the cords not functioning as it had been. The doctor also thought he could detect a small spot on it, but felt more that I had strained or overused my voice. Well, he put me on restriction, asking me to not overuse my voice for the next ninety days, and then we would look again. The vocal cord movement is recorded via a camera on a stainless steel tube placed down the throat and preserved on a computer. After the technician completes the recording, then the doctor looks it over. The best thing I can hear from him is, “…amazing”. He is once again happy with what he saw and that makes me happy. My wife went with me this time; she’s always scared for me and doesn’t like to go normally. I told her she needs to hear from the doctor the reassurance he gives me about my future for herself. I’m glad she went this time and I think it helped her to understand I’m in good hands and the future looks bright.
The prognosis of the future is not always accurately predicted. The foresight of some intelligent men can be astoundingly lacking. In 1876, then President Rutherford Hayes said of the telephone: “That’s an amazing invention, but who would ever want to use one of them?” In 1946, Darryl F. Zanuck, head of Twentieth Century Fox, said of the television: “People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” In 1977, Ken Olsen, president of Digital Equipment Corp. said of computers: “There is no reason for an individual to have a computer in their home.” A leading British surgeon, Sir John Erichsen said in 1837: “The abdomen, the chest, and the brain, will be forever shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon.” And then, consider the prognostication from vacuum cleaner manufacturer, Alex Lewyt in 1955: “Nuclear powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality within ten years.” Throughout history man has said, “It can’t be done” only to have time and technology freight train express right past the impossible to produce the unbelievable. The laser scalpel has preserved the use of my voice while fighting the cancer they are afflicted with. Not too many years ago, this was unheard of. We live in a blessed time.
[Proverbs 3: 5-8] “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make you paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.” Much of our physical problems have been brought about through our own devise. We abuse our bodies to a point of self-destruction and in spite of the physician advising us to change our lifestyle to cure our ailment; we either ignore the advice or insist on another pill to cure the fool. We treat the spirit the same way. God says we can reach the lost with the Gospel, men say it can’t be done. God says the fields are white unto harvest, men say folks won’t listen. God says folks are basically good and will respond to the foolishness of the message preached. Men say that folks are too evil to care about spiritual matters. Who are you going to believe? Men who have often been proven foolish and wrong, or the all-wise, all-knowing God? “My word will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11) Foolish men don’t understand.

Saturday, August 08, 2009

One Generation Away

My recent visit to Upstate New York to be with my terminally ill sister and siblings, sort of a solemn family reunion, brought to light a lot of changes since I was there last. I added the years to be right at forty and although many things were different, many things remained the same. Landmarks that I could clearly see in my mind didn’t exist any longer and those I expected to never to see again stood as tall and proud as I remembered. The Erie Canal locks system and the river it serves hasn’t changed one bit. The drive-in theater where I watched “2001 A Space Odyssey” in 1968 is still in operation and hasn’t aged a year. The old neighborhoods where I lived and played look the same, but with one dramatically noticeable observation. My sister and I had the same thought at almost the same time. Everything around us seemed much smaller than what we remembered them to be as children. The streets were narrower, the houses closer together and the distances from point A to point B shorter. The unforgettable distinct smells and tastes of my youth are still prevalent everywhere we traveled. Yet, I think no matter how far you travel from home some things never change. Every community has its dirty laundry flapping on the nightly news and every other road is under construction, reconstruction, just finished one or the other or needs one or the other. Automobile drivers perform the same stupid moves, yet roadway courtesy abounds. The one thing I miss most about living in Texas is the forestry of the New England states, which I was in awe of once again as we traveled about. It’s one of those things in life you never seem to notice until its not there anymore, one of those things you take for granted.
[Judges 2: 6-11] My visit to my childhood/adolescent home-place was indeed a heart wrenching experience knowing I may never see my sister again in this life. I also witnessed another odyssey, which brought my spirit low. I saw many large church buildings boarded up, abandoned, no longer in use. I learned some are being used as warehouses and outlet stores, and a few simply fell down due to lack of proper maintenance. “After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance. The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel.” Joshua, servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten. “After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers (died), another generation grew up, who never knew the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baal’s.” Most of the rest of the book of Judges reads the same. When the people had a God-fearing leader, they walked in the ways of the Lord until they no longer were taught the ways of the Lord. God had to raise up another leader to bring his people back in line. We are only one generation away from default because congregations of the Lord’s people are not teaching the children what Jesus has done for them. God is unable to raise up God-fearing leaders if our young people do not know God and follow His ways. The foundation of the church in America is eroding away, dissolved by ignorance. Our country is losing its freedoms because we no longer seek God-fearing policy makers to lead us, and our government, based on Christian principles, is evil in the eyes of the Lord if we are serving Baal’s.

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Running The Race

Sometimes, when it rains, it pours. Locally we wouldn’t complain if we could enjoy a good pouring down rain from the heavens, but when it comes to life, storms of despair aren’t enjoyable at all. I did not write last week, only the second time in nearly ten years, as I was away from home to be with my sister in upstate New York. She is terminally ill, her body ridden with cancer. She and her husband asked the family to unite in her living rather than her death and every one of us are grateful we had the chance to do so. She had unresolved issues plaguing her conscience that only siblings would understand. The four of us bared our souls to one another bringing about a comforting, personal resolution on her part, and a collective sigh of relief. As she lay partially paralyzed with irreversible spinal cord damage from rapidly growing cancer clusters and the return of lung cancer, she was determined to leave the hospital and spend whatever time she had left at home. Her wish was granted, and in the capable hands of her immediate family and Hospice, I saw her last at her home, happy and content. The time she has remaining is very uncertain pressing her siblings and other family members to return to their state’s of abode, California, South Carolina, Delaware, New Jersey and Texas. I was able to tell her I loved her and kiss her good-bye, with a response from her, good for both hearts.
God didn’t put me here to have a good time; He put me here to fight a fight, to hold a battle line. He put me here to help the weak and myself grow strong; He put me here to lend a hand and help the world along. He put me here to say a word of encouragement and cheer; He put me here to sing a song for someone else to hear. He didn’t put me here to whine, stick out my lip and pout; He put me here to do His work and Satan’s evil rout. He didn’t put me here to seek rewards and starry crowns; He put me here to do my part and see that love abounds. So, I’ll just seek to do my part as I travel through these lands, and I will strive to do His will and leave all in His hands.
[1 Corinthians 9: 24-27] Paul compares the Christian life to being in a race. Unlike a physical race where the first runner to the finish line gets a temporal prize and second place is only the first loser, the Christian runs his personal race to get a crown that will last forever. Paul says we must go into strict training, as any good runner does, and run the race in such a way as to get the prize. Running aimlessly in and out of the will of God, satisfying selfish desires and looking for redemption to soothe a guilty conscience, won’t get us to the finish line of life, only a second place of disappointment and death. Solomon wrote: “I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. Moreover, no man knows when his hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them.” (Ecclesiastes 9: 11-12) My sister was once again enjoying life abundantly after surviving lung cancer. Back and hip pain brought her to seek a physicians advise only to find out the end was very near. Physically, we will all come in second; we will all lose in the end. Spiritually, we can all be winners if we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Then we can say with Paul, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith”