ADDENDUM TO THE POST JUST WRITTEN!

MAKE NO MISTAKE. WHAT TRUMP DOES IS DEFILE.  ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING. THAT IS A SPIRIT AND THAT IS NOT INNOCENCE BUT A WILLFULNESS TO HEAP ON ANYONE AND EVERYONE THAT DOES NOT COME UNDER HIS AUTHORITY. I HAVE SEEN IT AND I RECOGNIZE IT FOR WHAT IT IS. AND SO SHOULD EVERYONE. IT IS NOT SIMPLY 'LOCKER ROOM TALK' BUT IS ATTACK AND CONQUER MENTALITY. THE LAME THE DEAD THE THE WEAK AND ALL THOSE WHO STOOD UP ARE TARGETS FOR HIM.  "BE YE HOLY , FOR I AM HOLY, WALK IN THE LIGHT, WE ARE NOT OF THE NIGHT WHERE DARKNESS WHERE THOSE WHO HIDE WISH TO DO EVIL BUT WE ARE OF THE DAY.........

CLEAN AT LAST......

   I CHALLENGE ANY ONE TO BE FEELING CLEAN RIGHT ABOUT NOW.  I AM GLAD THIS CAMPAIGN SEASON IS ABOUT TO COME TO AN END.  WITH ALL THE DIRT AND FILTH AIRED ON NATIONAL MEDIA I FEEL LIKE I AM IN MUD WITH THE PIGS.  AND SO I PRAY TODAY TO FEEL THE CLEANESS OF MY LORD AND GOD WHO WASHED US ALL WHO PARTAKE IN HIS DEATH AND ATONEMENT TO BE IN HIS EYES"WHITER THAT SNOW. I KNOW WE CAN NOT FEEL THIS WITHOUT HIM.  THE LORD JESUS IS THE STANDARD FOR OUR LIVES. EVERYTHING HE DID HE DID PERFECT.  ATONED FOR MULTITUDES OF OUR HUMAN SINS AND CLEANSED THOSE WITH DIS-EASE AND HEALED THOSE WITH AILMENTS FROM BIRTH, AND TAUGHT PERFECT WISDOM FROM ABOVE.   THE PURE WEIGHT CAST UPON US BY ORIGINAL SIN WAS TAKEN IF YOU LET IT AND ACCEPT IT.  AND SO TODAY I THANK GOD FOR THE ABILITY TO STAND ABOVE ALL OF THE THINGS THAT WOULD WEIGH ME DOWN AND DENY THE ONE WHO IS BEHIND ALL OF THIS AND RESIST HIM.  YOU DO THE SAME....REJOICE...AGAIN I SAY REJOICE!

Reaching Up

     Eight feet above me there is a little window with bars and two panels consisting of 8x8 squares of hardened glass that I am able to reach and slide for fresh air.  If I stand on my tip toes I can slide it over and let the light and air in at the same time.  It's the only avenue I have for myself  that allows me any kind of contact with the outside world.  Reaching up, I do this daily and it's my only joy I have.  You see, I'm a prisoner, solitary confinement for me.  I get it, I was bad man and this is what they gave me instead of death.  Life in this 10x 10 cubicle of concrete, stainless steel and 1 bed, outfitted with the barest of comfort.  1 stainless steel mirror anchored to the wall, no glass ( for suicide precautions) and a toilet and sink also stainless no porcelain.  Again for precautions.  I guess they kinda expect it of all those who are lifers.  I get it, I was a bad man, and they want me to know it every single day for the rest of my life.
     I killed in the heat of the moment. Premeditated, no, my lawyer argued against that, still I ended up here because the jury saw what was in my heart.  It came out suddenly, violently, directed at an innocent and here I am.  Been here now for going on 25 years.   I killed my boss. I guess now that I've had these many years thinking about it I didn't mean too.  But I got my old man's temper, rage and all.  It's better now than it was.  I been going to classes reading self-help and lastly been listening to a man been visiting me here weekly religiously for a year. Preacher man.
     Why he keep coming when others don't I do not know, but I like him and his words make me feel better.  Something about him different, than all the other preachers I have heard when I was young.  Something ring true with him.
     He keeps sayin, "Reach-up" when you have to and don't have anyone else to help and he will answer you.  "He means Jesus, that's who. He name him for me so I know who it is when I get an answer."  I said," been here 25 years and no answer, you know?"  But he says,
     "He will on his timing not yours!"  Well I said,
     "Better hurry cause I'm gettin gray and tired."

"Just reach up like you reach for that window, every day he says. Let the light that is like that window come on in and you will know it's him."
"Preacher man must know better than I cause that's what he does, but I'll try. His name is John.  "Just like the Baptist of the Bible," he said. "Okay I say," and he leaves me alone again.
     Morning again, I stretch, and I can see the light, a purplely-yellow, and I reach-up, slide the window and say "Jesus......Come in"......"Please, I don't want to be lonely anymore, please, I want to give you this rage an temper, I can't get rid of it." And, just then I feel it. The light comes in, through the hardened glass  window, and the hardness of my heart suddenly and un-expectedly turn into a joy, a smile, a filling like I never felt before.
      Preacher man was right......JUST REACH-UP, AND TRUST, NO MATTER HOW MANY YEARS IT TAKES, HE KNOWS YOUR LIFE SPAN!
   
   


   
   
 

This thing called myself:

The light has been turned on and has been illuminating since about the age of nine! What is it you ask...that light?  It is simply the quest, the all out quest to understand the why I am here?  And why should I ask that at all if I have no formal belief system as of yet formed at age nine?  How could I?  I can barely write coherent sentences, read a novel, just learned to tie my shoes 4 years earlier and have some inkling of right and wrong forming and that because of a neighborhood bully!
     Why then do I sense that something more is out there than jusy my biology of flesh and blood doing what is does, living...breathing...and functioning as it does by itself?  If  take the stance of  science as taught to me then facts alone would explain my existence. But what about the moral inward right and wrong I am taught by my parents or the inate sense of it when someone treats me unfairly?  So are the same thoughts of C.S. Lewis in his book, Mere Christianity.  He espoused "The moral Law" as something above and beyond what we really think it is.  Like that of say an Architect who then goes to create walls and staircases or fireplaces..he could no more be a part of the house but be the power behind it.  Likewise  "if there were a controlling power outside the Universe it could not expect to be a part of the Universe it had created or was controlling!  So the only answer we could hope to find for the reason we are here is in man himself and the "letters we receive personally" and addressed to us from.....God?  It is within himself the "package he has been allowed to open that he finds that there is somebody or something that wants him to behave in a certain way."  Thus there is he concludes both in science and in the Moral Law   a power behind the facts, a Director, a guide. ( ppg.25 Mere Christianity.)
     And so I found out also at an early age there is more to my life than meets the eye.  How then would I get my Letter personally addressed to me, if there was a power behind all that I am?  Search for it.
     In searching, I found that there were an abundance of choices before me.  A smorgasborg of food that offered the answer...only none seemed correct.  Most offered some reward of material gain or inward peace or insome cases nothingness at all!  Now that seemed counterintuitive!  Nothingness.....Or at best the chance to come back as an ant... or leopard or maybe even a swan or maybe someone who lived before!  Channeling was not for me.   But what I did find at an early age was the Good news for Modern man I read here and there but did not make much headway in understanding.   But it did leave an impression upon me nevertheless.  Some truth I sensed was in there waiting to be revealed at some point.
     Fast forward 10 years and then I meet someone who is very different. He's nice, calm, personable and not seemingly concerned with time or things. Just focused on me at that moment in time and concerned for my circumstances.  It was a chance meeting I thought...Then I met him again some time later maybe a month or so and he led me to his Church and I saw others like him and knew something was afoot!  And then things like Spirit, Holy Ghost and discipleship were the words coming from all of the ones I met there... My first experience of Christianity as more than  that of going somewhere to a Church....they were the Church.  Now I say it was vibrant, taught biblical truth and formed relationships that I had never before experienced but... it still fell victim to some erroneous teachings that  I would find out much later on.  Regardless the truth that was necessary for belief in God  was there in solid form, revelation, that personal letter addressed to me that would explain the why of things finally had made itself known.  And from there illumination continues....Jesus the Son of God forgave me...the right and wrong finally explained that made perfect sense of who I really am and where it all leads....another Kingdom where righteousness reigns.

                            WITH ALL THY GETTING....GET UNDERSTANDING
                         THE ENTRANCE OF THY WORD LORD, GIVETH LIGHT

   
   

Why The Gospel is Still Relevant Today: and not just a story book, it is indeed the message of good news.

     After all these years I can still say that I am in awe of the message of the Gospel, not just any Gospel, but the Gospel as Jesus and his disciples preached it.  That message in it's unadulterated and  and unaltered form is the message for life. And that life is not in the words printed in ink and on a surface of paper or now in digitized version.  Like Jesus told the Pharisee's and Saducees, the life they searched for was not in the scriptures of the Law they has religiously studied and carried out, but the true life was in Jesus himself.  And that enraged them because they could not get their minds around  what was in front of their eyes.  The Law and the Prophets had come to life.  All embodied in Christ, the Messiah.  What we have now is a record in ink and in binary a written testimony of what God wanted to leave behind for all those who would not see their Lord face to face but believe instead on the record of witnesses that had gone before them.  "For is it written blessed are those who have not seen but believe...." and we are they.  I am one.  The Gospel was meant to reveal forever the true nature of our God.  That the kingdom of God has come near.  For the Gospel to come near to us who were unbelievers, something had to change. We had to first repent of our own nature, trust that we were indeed born into a world of darkness and that darkness was in us.  Can you see it?  A Holy and just God came, in form just like us and took from us the darkness deep within and made it "white as snow" no longer scarlet.  The Gospel changed the world and it was meant too.  The words themselves of the Gospel have no effect unless the heart is willing and tilled up for the preparation of a new life and the seed to be  started.
     All of the daily misery, the striving, the poverty, and the oppressive Roman rule made for fertile ground for the Gospel to spread.  And spread it did.  Paul's life was indeed that life that produced a hundred fold.  Today we have a distorted version of  Westernized Christianity and can easily hop to and fro searching for the kind of word we want to hear.  And that is dangerous.  Dangerous because we limit the true nature and power of the Gospel and we do not release the Holy Spirit to do the work within our midst.  What did James say Religion was?  "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this; to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
     Did Jesus institute programs?  Did he institute Religion or Religious activity? Aside from healing, teaching, rebuking, and preaching, what did he do? He took captivity captive.  Inother words he took away from Satan that which was not his.......US.
   
   

This thing called life: Christ has turned the tables

     We were all born into the world with unknown notions of what this life actually is and what awaits us.  It is a journey of seconds, minutes, hours, days and years of experiencing a mortality that is all but too short.  How is it that some live it to the fullest and others do not.  Some spend immeasurable hours and with  immense effort to attain the world's wealth, only to lose it or fear that it will be taken from them.  Others spend their lives on a spiritual quest, tasting, seeking and trying just about anything known to obtain peace within and without and many are disappointed in their journey.  Others may be blissfully unaware of the deep seated needs within and just live day to day and then fade into oblivion not knowing what lies beyond or maybe even satisfied of a life lived.  But I am not.
      I have not wealth, or poverty, or extreme inward peace that leads to contentment, but what I do have...is the knowledge of the one who truly had the life and died and let it all go for you and for me.  Christ.   Christ, the Messiah, the chosen vessel of God's totality here on the Earth lived a life not much envied by many an even died in abject agony while loved ones stood by along with those who hated him as well.
    But everything that was embodied in the man Jesus was controversial, stirring, confusing, and amazingly loving towards those who knew him personally.
     Jesus absolutely turned the tables upside down on the definition of what life really is.  If you wanted to hold onto it then you would die. And if you died towards yourself then you would live!  Yes that is upside down and inside out but it makes sense to all those who have embraced his teachings and have accepted that he was the incarnate God and removed our sins and our "baggage" held onto long enough by us to kill us.
Life on Jesus's terms meant a daily lesson in denying all of those things that are so natural in us to do.  Lying, stealing, coveting, slander, lustfulness, and even those things that my have been looked upon as good, competition, being first, being strong, being wealthy, all American traits we have come to know being raised in this country. In and of themselves it is not wrong just self- oriented.  Jesus was anything but.  "What does light have to do with darkness?  Or righteousness with unrighteousness"   "Do not be unequally yoked", If you want to be first then be last and so forth.  Absolutely the tables have been turned for us and in that we can rest assured that we have the life he wanted for us.  In the self denial, we become lovers of others before ourselves and want what's best for all people.  We become less oriented to our own needs and begin to take on the mantle left for us by the one who went before us, and it is not easy to do. It is a process and a lifetime of change from within to without.   In that, we trust our Lord completely with the words he left for us we have many many promises of life left to us both here and in the kingdom we hope to be in after this life is lived.  Also we have the Spirit of Christ, within us as witness of to the truth of the Gospel and it's absolute integrity as the word of God.  Historically recorded, orally transmitted, and divinly inspired by thousands and many generations who also testified of it's authenticity.  That is the peace giving gift left to us and to all who would taste and see that the Lord is good.  Now, have I led a life I thought I would after receiving Christ?   Absolutely not.  My ideas and God's , totally different.   Am I living the prosperity doctrine?  Absolutely not.  Am I starving,  no, but I have known poverty, shipwreck, disapointment, betrayal and all of the other sufferings that Jesus said we might also experience, yet for all that, my confidence has not been shaken one iota.  It is in the knowledge that he has never left me alone in the trials that has given me life and seeing all the unexpected ways he has met all those trials.  Not as I would have imagined.  The blessings...three children, when doctors said we would be childless, and they all graduated college with scholarships earned with hard work  and no debt incurred.  In this day that is something.  Health, yes just the minor aches that come with age.  Housing, yes modest but affordable and a job yes, one that does not terribly stress, just the normal day to day obstacles between light and dark being in opposite kingdoms.  At least I can now make sense of a world on fire and of a world grown small with the daily sorrows brought all but too close with the intense media we have at our fingertips.  I also look for those who seek and yet still do not know there is a God, a personal one that cares and would love to intercede if only senses were attuned and minds open and the cliches of Christianity weren't so destroyed by those who preach falsely or without understanding.
     So my table has been turned upside down for  37 years and i'm still learning to adjust and not flip it over again!  Peace
   
     
   

Who then will bring charge against those God has chosen?

     If he is for you, then be of good cheer and rejoice, because there is hope that is far greater than that which is In the world. Including all those who daily heap  abuse on you unwittingly or not.  Take this day and run with the hope that Christ will reign in your mortal body and not the death that you were born into.  For we are no longer slaves, but have been set free. Therefore anything or anyone has no claim upon your joy, let it be complete in Christ.  Yes there will be daily battles, that is just the nature of what we have been thrust Into. But, what will unbelievers see? Will  They see the sternness, the stature of a soldier constantly in battle or will they see the peace of Christ in your face?  That is what you must hold onto today, and not the fierce face that turns away those who have no hope at all.

A Letter From Christ;

    Dear Children:
      I see that my ministry has led to some very, very good fruit. For I see that you are all letters written upon in your hearts and proved by the deposit of the Spirit I left behind for your growth.  See that as Paul my servant also said that no one deceives you through flattery of words.  For you are all lively stones now working out your salvation with the fear and trembling so needed today.  If it were not for fear ( not the kind that scares) but the kind that leads to a Godly reverance, you would certainly fall from the grace that now holds you above the fray.  I. know that the times are troublous and even more so than when I departed but take heart, I come soon.  My kingdom awaits for all of those who through faithfulness have put aside the trappings of the flesh and the worldy desire that so enraptures many of the world's populace.
     It is soon to be revealed that the darkness I spoke of long ago comes to reveal the wrath of my Father appointed for those who have made their choice.  I have been long suffering to this day that no one would be lost, but that is lamentable not to be so.  If they would open their eyes and ears as Isaiah surely preached then they, too would not have to suffer the coming storm.  Please be assured that I am one composed of Love towards you and all of those who have called on my name.  For I Am....and not another who will do as I have said.     Peace to all who have obeyed in Love.....

Rough Justice

And now what has it come too?  Shall we proceed to carry out rough justice, and surmise that the second amendment has been used as a threat, from a presidential candidate? That would be abhorrent to think of.  Yet it is exactly that which Trump suggested in yet another tirade.  It's time to throw out the baby, yes the one who cannot tolerate one who cries and disrupts his narcissism!  Boo hoo, really?  Let's all of us who know better stop giving in and do something rational come November . We cannot afford to see rough justice advocated and neither can we tolerate intolerance that is divisive, destructive, and dangerous.  Time to do a clean out! (As credit to Greg Illes novel page 365) run out on a rail!  Devil's punchbowl.

THEREFORE:

   One of the benefits of our inherited new life is the ability to shake off that which encumbers us.  Through the Spirit we daily die to our self and to the old man that was bound by sins of our nature and the things that are of no use in the kingdom of God.
     First Peter 2 ; "Therefore  rid yourselves of all malice, and all deceit, hypocrisy's, envy and slander of every kind.  Like newborn babies, crave pure Spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good."
     Have you taken a bath today in the world's water?  Feel the weight of the things that you were set free from?  I'm talking about  gossip, backtalk, lies, and complaints that the world is full of.  Just some of the things that are so prevalent in those who have not tasted that the Lord is indeed good.   And he is good to his word.   As Christians we need not take a daily bath with them but it is necessary that we retreat to our prayer closet and thank God for the freedom we have and pray for those who don't yet experience it.  We have "escaped" from the Law of Sin and Death and are now experiencing newness of our senses in that we no longer do the things that we used too.. It is not pleasing to God.  And never can be. The miracle of that is mind blowing.  And unless you have gone through it or known others who have, then you cannot know the wonder of it.  Jesus, never sinned or in the vernacular, never gave in to the baser things we could do daily.  Did you ever read that he slandered John or Peter behind their backs?  Was he a gossip or a busybody?  I don't see it.  And our great teacher Paul, who was himself over zealous and put some to death later speaks so eloquently of love that endures all things.   How So?  It is because he too was a new creation in Christ, thankful for the full re-birth that God brings through Jesus Christ.  And so if at the end of the day you feel like you have wallowed in all kinds of mud.....find out how to get clean?  Permanently!

A most excellent word;

     What will today bring you?  Will it be the first fruits of bad news or good?   Will what ever graces your doorstep bring with it the fruit of that which is wholesome or will it be another heart wrenching bit of news that at depresses and brings with it the downcast eyes?  Today, I will focus on the good.  Why?  Because the evil is catching up with us everyday and trying to encroach on what God detests.  We are beings with so much creative and artistic and musical ability why should we let ourselves be brought down to  Hell daily?  Today I will not allow myself to be brought down.  Will you?  Think on these things...."whatsoever thing are good, whatsoever things are pure and so on goes our teaching from an Apostle many years ago.  Lord knows, he had enough of his own troubles and so we are to be always counter to the Devil's ways and model Christ.   Love one another today.   Peace

What we are witnessing; the irrational......

 

      What we are witnessing today and it seems everyday is the irrational actions of men controlled by passions unbridled. Passions that are stirred up by jealousy, hatreds, and motivated by separations not only of race  and color but of Religious beliefs that burn with a fire that is not easily quenched.  In looking at the differences we have with one another we fail to look at the things which can unite instead.  Instead of coming together over Political and racial divide, we are concentrating and giving voice to the stronger and inward emotions that separate.  Will we truly nominate for President the one who embodies such things?  And will we all be happier when we build giant walls, call out the colors of men, and group all ethnic and religious people who pose a threat in one giant meatball?  It seems that there is a great divide and a great delusion working in our midst.  Witness the Evangelicals of this Country who are lining up with the one who is divisive and calls the things above the reason for our discontent.  I am flabergasted that those who name themselves Christians I.e. Evangelicals can be so blind so as to support such a man.  Do they not see the great big E on the eye chart?  All of the vulgarisms and innuendos, and racist remarks and self-building egoism are definitely not attributes of a genuine Christian.  How then can those Evangelicals stomach such things and unite to be a force for nominating such a man?  It is no different than when Jesus was accused of casting out Beelzebub by Beelzebub...it was irrationality and blindness.
      Now what about the killings of African Americans and the retaliation of it and the acts of terror seemingly stepped up to a daily and weekly horror?  We are witnessing the breakdown of bonds between men and nations and religious groups that have no moral center and can have none when there is no rudder that is sane.
     "The happiness of men lies In an acquaintance of God; it is life eternal, it is the perfection of rational beings."  So is the quote of Matthew Henry a great commenter of the Bible.
     Everything Jesus said and did was for all of our benefit.  Nothing was left out of the picture when it concerned the human condition.  Are you hungry? Feed one another.  Are you cold and without clothes, see to it that you give your cloak to the one without.  Are you broke and have no resources?  Ask someone who you trust.  Do you lack discretion, wisdom, motivation and feel empty of the worlds's provisions, then go to the one who promises all of these things and can correct the inward longings of such things.  If and when we begin to build up rather than tear down then and only then will we see and feel the joy of the Lord which is supposed to be our strength.  Daily we must resist the one who sows division not only without but within as well.  It is and individual responsibility we carry as Christians representing as Ambassadors the one we love, and the one who gave himself for us.
     Are we going to be as a nation representative of the  one who has been called vile, slanderous, untruthful, and one who dis-owned many while reaping the benefits of their labor to his own gain.  I hope not.  Let's not be irrational anymore and give another look to what we are doing.    And those who go by the name do you really know what contract you are about to sign?
   

New Wine into New Wineskins;

     I like antiques. I like anything that is from another era that shows something different than I am aquainted with. I remember when  was a teen looking at an old Victrola in mint condition and begging my mother if we could have it. Along with 78's of Enrico Caruso it enthralled me.  I like old cars and old machinery.  I also now have a fondness for studying history of which I absolutely hated in my high school because I didn't know any and didn't care too.
     So why am I in this vein of thought today? It's because along with an appreciation of the old I am aware of the newness of life that Jesus brings on a daily basis. Jesus is the exact opposite of the Law of Entrophy which states that everything in a high order then decays into a state of disorder.  Thermodynamics or something like that.  But that is where Jesus is radically different. He rose from the dead.  From state of willful sacrifice and beating at the hands of angry men uncontrolled in their zeal of a belief system that was challenged.  Why? Because the incarnate God wanted to do something new for us.    In his parable of the wineskins being burst by new wine which the old could not tolerate It is a telling parable.  In effect, change. You in the state you are in that being old cannot accept the new (Holy Spirit) without becoming a new wineskin.   All of the old attitudes, and our mindset and the state of our  sinfullness cannot exist or coexist together.  Repentance is needed and we have to die to our self will inorder to be an acceptable vessel for the new birth.  It is a 360 change, a turn around from everything and anything that is opposite in our nature.  Want to be first, then be last. Want to be great in the kingdom then become a servant.  Want to see God, then become pure in heart.  Want to inherit the Kingdom of God then become meek. And so on.  Positional thinking goes nohwere in this Kingdom.  Witness the two who wanted to be granted the seats of right and left beside Christ.  What was his answer. Can you drink of the cup I am about to drink from?  So if you like old things like I do, think again about also the newness required to enter into a kingdom radically different than what we think it is.  If you are allied with the world and it's ways the gate is wide, and narrow for those who find life and want to keep it.

And so it is, and so it goes?

     The glory of a young man is his strength.

     The glory of an old man is his hoary head.

 "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a savior from there, The Lord Jesus christ, who by the power who enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.


     From the very beginning of this journey called life, we experience gain and then loss as we age.  From somewhere between the age of 10 to age 35 we seem programed to be on an upward swing to achieve and set goals for ourselves and remain in a state of non-entropy.  But then something takes over.....we begin to head on into a very slow spiral of downward movement not only in our bodies but somehow in our minds as we process the changes that take place.  Yes we can continue to mature and gain wisdom but the slippage becomes apparent over the course of the next decades.
     Do we become more complacent as we age?  Accepting of the facts before us that our bodies no longer perform in the same way, our minds stressed out by the continual pressure of lives lived some in the fast lane some in the lane I call " no passing zone" where we stick to a pace we can now endure.  I think I am in that lane of no_passing!  Yuck!  I used to love to drive long lengths of time when young, up and down the East Coast, never tiring of the hum of tires along roadways in endless stretches of roads.  Now I barely tolerate the drive through my city as the mindless rush and sometimes dangerous drivers around me make me tense up and wish to be anywhere but here on the noisey roads.  I barely tolerate the jumble of trucks madly brushing by just inches it seems from my front and back bumpers as I refrain myself from @#$&^%$%^^ words from exiting my mouth!
    Now I am a homebody......It has finally come to ZZZZZZ's (that's sleep) too early for me but I succumb anyway to the necessity of it.  NOw I am not eighty or even ninety but I feel the tug of something in mybody  parts that makes me think omg!  My mortality is on my mind more often than not!  And with that......"I don't want to leave......comes out of somewhere deep within me and stuns my consciousness into a stark reality....It's closer now to a dirt bath than I want to think about....while my wife thinks cemetaries are pretty, with the flowers, the beautiful headstones and angels etc. etc.
    So with these morose thoughts in play there is then the opposite thought of my enduring belief in my waking again after some type of  "sleep" that the Apostle Paul talks about in his letters to the various Churches he founded.  " We shall not all sleep" he contends but at the last trump, ( no not Donald) but the sound, we shall awake and behold him who comes in the clouds with myriads of angels and we shall be caught up with him>!  Wonderful, yes, amazing, and who wouldn't want to believe that?  In direct contrast to the thought of never awaking,  I'll take that any day...
     Also when Jesus was crucified between the two, I guess criminals you could call them, he said to one "today you will be with me in Paradise."  Now if God can never lie and that is his nature, then there is a place again for my body and mind to go to and do what?  Rule and reign with him.......and I don't know what that's going to be like but it's better than absolute nothingness......And I can take a certain pleasure in that and push those pesky thoughts out of my head while my body continues to go it's own way regardless of what I want.   Peace.

Rebuttal To Death in Black and White by Michael Eric Dyson

       It is obvious in reading this article by Michael E. Dyson he is greatly hurt by the "death leading to more death, which no one would ever hope for."
       While I and the world take a wait and see posture for the revelations of the incidents to be truly revealed, so as not to jump on a bandwagon of hatred and join one cause over and against another. ( regarding the car shooting and pinning shooting) not the sniper,  I must also say I am a white American so I guess according to Michael Dyson I was born with "binoculars" that see black life from a distance."  Yes I must admit I do not travel in the culture of the african american community.  The only contact is with friends with whom I work with in an established atmosphere where we perform jobs for pay and so work with one another and along the way become friends regardless of skin color.   Isn't that the way anyone gets to know anyone? By rubbing shoulders?  Being close and finding the similarities of one another more binding than the differences?
    I am afraid that Michael Dyson has stoked within his writings some lothing for the whiteness of our culture (those who are white) but narrows the field considerably of those who feel genuine sorrow at the hands of those in authority who have committed grave errors in judgement while given great authority to police the populations of all colors.  "Whiteness is blindness. It is the wish not to see what it will not know."  (NY Times Jul. l0 2016)  I for one do not believe in his statement "If police must kill us for no good reason, then so be it because most of us are guilty anyway."
      Hogwash I say and with a certainty. I do not believe anyone is guilty except that their actions betray them and that is where justice should lie.  Not in anything else.  Yes this country has been founded on a white race, from England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Poland, etc, etc, but also on the African American .  Yes slavery is a terrible stain on our history but advances have been made, it is always within select groups of the non-enlightened that withhold the forward motion of any society.

    " Your whiteness has become a burden too heavy for you to carry, so you outsource it to a vile political figure ( I guess Trump) who amplifies your most detestable private thoughts."  We do not all subscribe that vile political figure. I and many, many others disdain the very thought of such a person coming into an office of dignity who says and does vile things.
     Now in the matter of moving on what about forgiveness?  What about the moral centeredness we as a nation have lost?  Those who are indeed a self centered, ego centrist and concerned with only their immediate needs, the insulated nature of this country has eroded and produced within us a less giving desire unless as in 9-11 we come together over a united horror.
     Forgiveness is a central theme in Christianity.  Without it we all would be condemned.  "Mercy triumphs over judgement" and so I hope mercy will prevail and those who need forgiveness will indeed receive it.  If in the actions of those who weild authority they have been proven too young and too un-tested in such situations I pray that new and abiding training go a long way in stopping these deaths. I also pray that Mr. Michael E. Dyson take and attitude of humbleness and not serve to inflame that which is already inflamed.  But in the likes of Martin Luther King, reserve judgement, resist evil, and don't play into hands that will undermine a genuine cause of  Black Lives Matter.
        I am one who believes in a higher "citizenship" one of a heavenly nature overseen by a just God.  We live in an imperfect world filled with all kinds of people of different ideas, cultures, and backgrounds woven together in a unique society called American.  It is different but not unlike the Roman times when if in a "conquered" culture you could still be a citizen of Rome... Witness the Apostle Paul unjustly cuffed and jailed for simply believing something else rather than the Roman Gods.or...the Jews who constantly tried to entrap him.  They be-headed him unjustly....
   

BRASS TACKS'

     Okay, lets pull that mask off and get down to brass tacks. Who and what exactly is the being called Satan?  And what is the anti Christ?  And finally who are the true believers that will at all costs follow their Lord and die daily for him?  Let's be clear it is soooo much bigger than religious gatherings to fill a self desire for spirituality or have a nice and clean life filled with nice songs, nice playgrounds for our kids or any thing of the kind.  It is warfare. We are the ones who know our enemy. Yes we have an enemy look around at our world and open your eyes.
     First who is our God?  He is the one true God of the Hebrews revealed for all time and all generations a kinsman redeemer for our souls.  He is the one who saves.  From what you ask?  For one death.  And from the fallen state we we find ourselves in.  Do not be deceived, we are all in that kind of state the moment we are born. Like it or not.   Innocent we are not.  We were born into a bondage, and to a hard task master who would love to remain invisible and  continue to be a myth.
     If you believe that then he has won over you and you have no power to resist.  Jesus said to his disciples, beware the one who can cast soul and body into Hell or destroy the soul and body.  And who is the Anti Christ?  Any one who is against Christ and anything he stands for.  That being life eternal, joy, peace, forbearance, charity, selflessness, love, and bearing one anothers burdens.  Satan is for death, lying, deception, captivity, bondage, hatred, dominion, and to separate you from a God who wants you in his kingdom instead of Satans.
      I have witnessed personally those who have been so totally taken over with darkness  that they self loath themselves and anyone else to the point of such hatred that killing is relief for them and they think for others as well.  Where does this come from?  This twisted nature so inner entwinned with confusion and delusion that they cannot see clearly at all. And this is the nature of Anti....against life and Christ himself.  When Peter heard that his lord was to die, Peter said. No LORD,,,and Jesus said Satan get thee behind me!  Really?  Peter at that moment was allied with the anti mentality and against what Jesus had to accomplish for all Humanity for all time.  That's why Jesus had to rebuke him.  And so we live daily in a world that is not and cannot be for God.  Unless there is change from within, and that must come from God himself, drawing the spirit within and then adding his own in the form of the Holy Spirit to keep you safe and become his own peculiar possession.  Yes we are not our own when we surrender to Christ.  For now he lives in us and we now have new eyes and a new heart to perceive all that is going down.........Friend this is not arrogance or a preaching fire and brimstone message, just the truth of the way things are.
     This being called Satan, truly we cannot see with eyes but we can see what he has wrought among us.  Jesus said he was a liar and a thief from the beginning....Genesis.  he stole you and others to have dominion over. Jesus is our Kinsman reedemer.  Religion does not do it, going to Church does not necessarily do it either, crystals, astrology, chanting or meditating.   You must personally know beyond doubt who God is and what he requires OF YOU OH MAN...believe it, God wants you to know who he is.  He wants communion with his creation, he wants to fulfill in you all that his son was and did and showed while here on Earth.  Mercy triumphs over judgement.........That is his nature. Peace.
   

All of Us who call on the Name, and identify with Our Lord must rally in the Spirit and remain calm.

     Let us not for get that a light has gone into all the world.  That light is the light of all men. Jesus Christ.  Now let us not forget to take up the cross that he more than commanded that we do because he knows the depths to which we have sunk.
    There is a man who is center stage, a meglomaniac, and egoist, and man unfettered in his speech to rile and disturb the peace and use whatever he can to maintain the agenda and steamroll across this country and mash all common sense.  Really, "thousands and thousands" in this country worse than what we saw in the last few days.....ready to kill, these words are not words of a sane individual much less one to be elevated to the Presidency of the United States.
      What is going on?  And why have we let him get so far?  Rally for common sense, for now is the time to make change before it is too late.  Are the Politicians backrooming some grand idea, some secret agenda to deal with the likes of this man once he is in?  Much like the way a stagnant Congress reigned in the Obama Administration?  I hope so.  For our sake, we are entering a dangerous game if we let someone like him continue to foment hatred with words and agitate our senses with slander, bigotry, swelling words with pride written all over them.
      The media will do a service for us and continue to make transparent all of this so we can make intelligent decisions about one who harkens back to a bestial frame of mind.
     Has forbearance, love, self-control and all of the attributes of a nature of love gone out the window?  I sincerely hope not.  We who are looking at and with amazement need not too, for this is exactly the type of man who is predicted to come, and upend the normal.
   

The Things I Left Behind

My bazooka and hubba bubba buble gum

My baseball cards attatched to my bicycycle spokes

My pogo stick

My superhero comic books (now worth a small amount of money)

My boyscout knife

My baseball bat and glove

My cardboard box colored in to be a imaginary race car

My dirt fort containing all of the dirtballs so we could play war

My marbles, jax, and small pocket treasures( no frogs)

My favorite t.v. shows, Flipper, Walt Disney, My Favorite Martian and many others of that era......

Most of all my unending summer days filled with wandering through the woods and grass fields playing with childhood friends long gone.


"When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see as only a reflection in a mirror"........

THE GREATEST

HE'S A SMOKING  STACK
AND HE'S PRONE TO ATTACK
DON'T YOU TURN YOUR BACK
OR HE'LL KNOCK YOU FLAT
HE'S GOT A MOUTH LIKE REFINERS FIRE
BUT HE SURE AIN'T NO LIAR
BEAUTIFUL AND BROWN
NOW DON'T YOU FROWN
HE'S BEAUTIFUL NOW
BESIDE THE ONE
WHO ENDOWED
REST NOW ALI,
FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY
STING LIKE A BEE
IN THE COMPANY OF GREAT  MEN
WE WILL SEE YOU AGAIN
NOW AND FOREVER
IT'S  THE FINAL ROUND
              AMEN

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?'

     One of the greatest fears that man can have is the fear of death.  What happens after we leave our home we have lived on for 70, 80, 0r even 90 years?  That is the mystery that everyone should know about!  And many hold on to life whether grudginly in poor health or happy in wealth and plenty and good health.  We all go the same route but.....we are afraid to leave this earth and body that houses our life's essense.  Jesus told his disciples not to be afraid of those who kill the body but rather the one who can kill the body and the soul, and throw it ito hell.  Yikes!  So there it is, the sting of the true death, the second one after the body is no longer able to sustain it, and the destruction of all that we were in this life separated from any kind of salvation.  Now this is not to be construed as fire and brimstone preaching but I believe that Jesus wanted us to know the truth so we could make decisions.
    Now getting back to the sparrows.... Jesus said not one of them would fall to the ground outside of the Father's care.  So he is very instructive in the nature of the loving grace of his Father.  Read further down in the passage from Matthew and you will see that he warns those who disown him before others then, "I will disown them befor my Father."
     And vice versa whoever acknowledges Jesus before men, I will ackowledge before my Father.  Very clear.
    The Revelation of who he is and what he can do either for us or not, is a weighty matter for us to consider in relationship to him.  It is not a matter of religion or religious activity. It is the matter of the free will rejection of the revelation of the SON who was sent with purpose for all mankind...inclusive for all races, tribes and nations.
    So where are you going to go?  I don't relish the time to come when death overcomes this body but I pray that when it does, I can sense the other side with joy and the greeting of Angels, family and the Lord in  my body as it goes.

    P.S.  In case you missed it a penny is not very valued in our culture, and so sparrows are equated as of not much value.  But in God's eyes very highly esteemed.

In Opposition to Common Culture

      We resist the world every day. Every day we who are called Christians rely not on ourselves, or our teachers of the past or parental guidance from our early years. Why, because if we are still in love with the things of this world we are no good to Christ. Daily we resist the entrapments of those things that would constrain the Holy Spirit within.  THE very resurrection itself is the exact anthisesis of death, it could not hold Christ in the grave, and we should not be held in anything that is a bondage and contrary to the Holy Spirit's deliverance and living power within our lives.
     Are you in fear? There is perfect love that  will cast  it out.
     Are you in doubt? There is faith.
     Are you in sadness? There is the joy in the Lord.
     Are you surrounded daily by people, bosses, structures of corporate life that exasperate you on the inside, and tries to  define who you are and make you a conformist?  Then take heart, all of these things are examples of world pressures that we resist and ask God to help us in to be what we are supposed to be.
     Freedom, is what the embodiment of Christianity is all about.  It is the counter culture that was Christ.  Was he afraid of the Romans or their Government?  No.  Was he afraid to be with Lepers? No. Or tax collectors, or sinners or just about anything else you could think of that goes against popular thinking.  Our culture is stagnant, dead in it's ability to elevate anything of life's true values.  Just try navigating the world of internal politics of a job. and you would have to begin to become a lier, a gossip, a kisser upper or worse complacent and unaffected which I think doesn't exit.  It is impossible to love the world and Love Christ too.  So where do we begin  in navigating these treacherous waters daily.  On our knees asking continually to be empowered by something different.  Yes we cannot become radical or separatists or fight the system, but have to be in the world but "not of it."  Hard to do.  We will have to do what Christ did, and obey a different set of rules from a different kind of kingdom.  His kingdom was light, not dark, proclaimed, not hidden behind gates with security to keep those from within from escaping.  Or in other words cultish.  Note the popular show " The path."
    So today as you go about the things you have to, like me, ( and sometimes I feel like a rebel and want to take up arms!) but I don't I suffer in Christ knowing that he said we would be blessed when persecuted for his names sake.  So also, do not be molded any longer by the pressures, people, or structures that are acceptable but, take the freedom Christ can give, forbear what you have to, and trust even though it is hard.  There are thousands of us out there who are doing the exact same thing!

A Faith Such as Ours:

     To those who have received faith, precious and to the saving of our souls, what are we to do once we have it?  Peter says we have been given everything we need to live a godly life, whereby we are participants in the divine nature.  Get this, it is important.  The divine nature is no less than what Jesus walked in and expressed to those who would open their eyes and see the opposite of what existed around them daily.  Peter says also to add goodness to your faith,and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control, and to self-control, perseverance, and to perseverance Godliness, and to Godliness mutual affection and then finally love.  If he says, we do this then it would keep us from being ineffective in our knowledge of him.  That is what we should do, however it is practiced in our lives and however we find it in the local Churches around us today.
     Granted, it is much harder than it seems, because there is opposition to it, and it is natural for us to resist our true nature and do the things we always did.  But, there is grace upon grace because of the Holy Spirit given to us to succeed in this.  The Spirit searches all things and knows the mind of Christ and so it imparts to us a power to live different lives from that which we lived before thereby being participants in a nature that is divine like our Lord.  We are like him in that we resist the Devil at all turns and corners of our life and are now knowledgeable to his schemes set against us.  Paul himself, resisted continually until the very end. So we suffer in nature like Christ but, be comforted, because if we suffer for him we suffer on the side of righteousness.  So we carry on and in ourselves a great and precious faith to do the will of him who is eternal and he will reward those with him one day  the promise of eternal life and a kingdom that is greater than this one. What are we to do, Love one another as he loved us..........

That sweetness of first things tasted. Young life

  Do you remember?  Has it been too long since the taste of first things caused a sweetness in you?  Then take a trip down memory lane and remember the things that made you smile, made you feel alive, and perceive all the the wonderful things of early adolescense, and young adult life that made you feel impervious to life's curve balls.  I remember, the smells ands scents of flowers of Springs not tasted many times, the freshness and the lively way it made me feel. I remember first love's of friendships made, cars first driven, movies first seen, and first love.  Now it seems rote, the experiences of life tumbled together, cynisism's felt, hearts's broken, and hard times too many to say, mixed together in the dough of life and expanded in my mind that presses those early times out.
    But, there is hope!  For all of life's troubles and experiences that tumble out of somewhere we cannot readily see, there is the hope to be born again!  Yes there it is.  What Jesus tried to explain to Nicodemus, and the woman at the well, (The Samaritan), there was that which made new all over again.  Born of the Spirit, as Jesus knew was the recipie for life anew.  That which Jesus walked in every minute and every day and for three years to make the thirty three years of his life exceptional.  What you say?  Yes it is true.  The Spirit of God poured out to you has the capacity to make you start all over again in a brand new way.  And with it comes a 360 degree way of thinking. It will transform your thinking in ways that is counterculture to everything you have known up to this time.  Though cliche in it's useage for our culture, born again terminology is exactly the word for a transformation that will make you again experience life anew, complete with the very things I mentioned above in the first lines of this blog. So do not lose heart in a world that is fast becoming hard to take with it's war's, catastrophes of nature, sadness of stories in the news, and families and friends split because if differences not mended in time to save relationships.
     Christ was Messiah, savior, of men, women and children, to lead them into a different kind of living.  Though we have to find it ourselves and sometimes it is a bit of a mystery how and why some do and many don't, yet it is true.   We have to filter it through the Centuries of the Types of Christianity offered in our culture and pick and choose and wade through perhaps doctrinal mazes to get at it. How ever the purest way is to find those who have already been there done that and see the truth for your self in that.  And begin to read yourself the Acts of the Apostles and the beginning of Pentecost and the early Church to understand the roots of our present day Christianity.  Sifting through for yourself and coming to the right conclusions when reading and experiencing the Gift of the Holy Spirit will then shed light on what I am saying.  And then over time again you will have to guard your heart against a hardning that comes with experience, even in being born again.  Because  you will now face the same trials, Jesus and his followers did, but you will know without a shadow of doubt that God is in it, and for you and beside you in all of it and you will have the newness everyday to find within you the life Jesus wanted for all of us.
       Then comes holiness, sanctification, justification, and all of the Gospel's truth tubling in sometines to fast to to work on.  And then you will find all the other people on the same journey as you perhaps doing what they can to reverse the course of a fallen nature, pouring into communities, families, and citizens  the hope needed in your new found sphere of influence.   Peace.

Advancing the Kingdom of Light;

     Jesus was perfect in everything that he did.  He always did what the Father told him.  Nowhere in the scriptures do I find any antagonistic nature on display from him.  Even in the account of all that he did as relayed by his disciples you would think there would be at least one thing that would betray this, but there is not one thing.  he healed, tought, fed, and walked from town to town displaying a very different nature that what we do.  Everyday we live and work  in a world where blame is cast, accusations fly, and people do what ever they can to remain blameless themselves to what end?  To look good of course.  In advancing the kingdom of light those who actually practice what they preach in Christianity will then advance in this world....light instead of dark. It is so discouraging to hear the words, it's not my job, I don't get paid enought to do that?  Or, Can't you see that I'm busy! Get someone else to do that....and on and on it goes.  You see there are those corporations that actually infuse their companies with a mentality of cooperation and as we know they excel way beyond others in everything they do and people for the most part are content and happy to be there.  So we walk in a world of darkness is it any wonder why we are frustrated at the end of every day?  Our nature like that of Peter, when confronted with the prediction of his Lord's death was counter to Jesus's.  "Get behind me Satan",, you are only concerned with human concerns!"  So how do we as Christians navigate through this type of nature that non-believers display? It for certain they they too recognize the failings of working in this type of environment or else apathy woul not be so prevalent.  They are sick of it too, and so it's them not me attitude prevails everywhere.  Now not eveyone succumbs to this but 80- to 90 percent do.  And that is enough to be a bad apple in a barrel! To spoil the bunch.  So to advance the Kingdom of light we must always align ourselves on the side of righteousness and truth, not ours but the Lord's.  And then avoid the traps that are set, to catch us up in.  And avoid the defense we put up inorder to resist accusations that may be false against us.  We live in a fallen world and things will go wrong everyday.  Cheer up you Christians!  Yes the Kingdom is here but there will be resistance to come against. Advancing like in battle requires persistence!

I'm ticked! Tired of preachers using the Gospel for their Agenda or their interpretation of it!

     Ok it only took thirty seconds to tune into today a preacher railing against family and marriage!  And mis representing anything that resembles common sense and to boot perverting the gospel by inserting his own interpretation of what the Gospel does not say!
    He said something to the affect that families in the time of Jesus were large many children so that when the parents got old they were cared for and this was a type of security that could replace God and he called it idolatry! And today we have stocks and investments that we derive our seurity from  instead of family or God and so that could be idolatrous.   Further he said, if two young people desire to be married and are too young in Christ they have no business getting married ! NOW This type of preaching is a dividing technique and a controlling technique and is not scriptural at all.
   Commandment" Honor thy father and thy mother!  In the time of the Prophets one could be stoned for cursing their parents.   They were tought honor.Family was important, in the Old Testament and the New.  What about widows?  That is addressed the book of Acts.  And ministry was formed to take care of them so they were not overlooked.

Marriage was in that time also arranged by parents (think Mary and Joseph)and also could be political between Kingdoms (nations) and tribes to garner peace and or just good relations. Also they tended to marry very young, 14, 15, 16 was not uncommon.  So tell me, does a 14 year old know all there is to marriage?  I think not.  Paul in his letters supported marriage for those who wished to be, and preferred that to "burning" by waiting too long. In other words, Paul knew the needs of the young and the tendency to not want to wait for those in Love.  He also stated that he would rather they be single  so they would serve God whole-heartedly and not be torn between service to God and to family needs.  But nevertheless there was no straight line to forbidding to marry  or waiting to be "ready",however there were those who did not want to marry because it was arranged, and perhaps love was absent. I have found Western Christianity to be heavy handed and improper in it's counsel to the young at times and in some circles.
  I have not found  guidelines to the affect of waiting in marriage or of families being kept at a distance anywhere in the NT stipulating this kind of doctrine.  Preachers need to be very careful that they do not enter into a controling type of doctrine, then it becomes  cultlike behavior.  So yeah, I'm ticked by hearing these types of sermons dictating it as authority and using the Gospel to promote doctrine  when it is in fact not.  Common sense, trust, fidelity, hope, and faith go a long way in two people's lives to create a future together.  Let them do it!  Let families stay together, don't divide by calling it idolatry by using  fear tactics.  Family will sort it out or go their own way.

The Confusion of Our Time

     The natural order of things we have known is slowly slipping away.  The things that have been put in place are no longer staying in that place.  The accepted norms are no longer accepted but changed and with that comes confusion and disorder.  The same is reflected in the natural around us.  Seas that go wild, and Tsunamis are generated by lands that quake and cities are destroyed.  Is this something old or is it new? And are we experiencing the future too early?  Shifting weather patterns due to climate change say the scientists.  Warming trends that cause a Spring to early and winters too late.  Birds and insects out of natural time seeking what they have known are born out of season and die early for lack of feeding grounds, and pathology that destroys bees now in summer and the fall.  The rest seems to have disappeared for us and the land and the animals.
                                       Should you not tremble in my presence?
                                            I made the sand a boundary for the sea,
                                         an everlasting barrier it cannot cross.
                                           The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail;
                                         they may roar, but they cannot cross it.
23                                         But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts;
                                              they have turned aside and gone away.

  These are the words of God from Jeremiah. Proclaimed to the nations of Judah and Israel. They too are on the verge of something unatural.  For in their time and fierce nation, and a people with a language they do not understand with "quivers lilke an open grave." will descend upon them and leave them desolate.  Why?  "My people are fools,they do not know me. They  are senselesss children; they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do good."

          This nation was supposed to be a blessed nation and a witness that Almighty God was in their midst.  Instead they rebelled forgot their God, their covenants and for their own piety they received in themselves and their nation a justice from above.
     Have we forgotton our roots?  And have we now entered into a place unnatural for a God to bless us nationally?  Isn't that what we are crying out for in our elections?  For someone to lead and restore.  That will never be man, absent the morality and awareness of his God. One who can and will change seasons and times, a warning, to us.  The simplest things are now in confusion and cause battle lines to be drawn in this nation.  Laws are being implemented and created to suppport a new and different version of morality.  Genders are mixed.    And we can now be whoever we can be, believe whatever we want and do whatever we want.  There are no boundaries.  This is opposite in nature of a  God who gave boundaries to the seas, that cannot displace the sands, cannot roar over them. Unless of course he desires to show himself, Lord over all.  Jesus with but a word, calmed his seas for his nervous disciples.   

            And so with Law we will create new order, inclusive, exclusive, intrusive, whatever it takes to make us happy in our current moment.  

That ever fearful state ;Doubt

      Even the greatest of great men can be cast away and fall into a deep state of doubt and unbelief.  John the Baptist was such a man.  The voice of one crying in the wilderness, "make straight the way of the lord!"  Yes this was the one man, a firery, wild and untamed spirit who went before the Lord, proclaiming the coming Kingdom of God and his Messiah.  This was the one who Leapt in the womb, before birth, upon Mary's approach to Elisabeth.  The heavy Spirit of God was upon him from his birth until his death in captivity by King Herod.
   John, who Baptized for the repentance of sins, to make those ones, clean, and prepared the way for the true Messiah who would do so much more.
     Jesus said, "and if you are willing to accept it, he was the Elijah who was to come. Whoever has ears , let them hear."
    So fast forward to some years later, and John  has been imprisoned, and has fallen into a tremendous state of depression and doubt for he sends his disciples to inquire of Jesus;  "Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?"

     Such a tremendous witness for the Messiah has fallen deeply into despair.  But, take heart, Jesus lifts him up with a word sent back. " Go back and report to John what you hear and see; the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.  And now for the final uplift, Jesus says, "Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me!"
     What mercy.  What compassion, to the one who most needed it in his time of trial.  John I'm sure went on to his death with greater comfort after these words and commands from his Lord!
   What we as Christians must never lose sight of, is the temptation to fall and enter into a state of deep doubt about our Lord, or even the things we suffer if we end up in a place we never expected too or we do not end up doing for Christ what we first thought we would do.
    Doubt is a serious foe to tangle with. It will strip away and fast the faith that we take years to cultivate.  So be on your toes daily!
     I know first hand, because I have sought for many years the very things that slip through the fingers as though vapor.  And I have wrestled with the age old question, Why?  Anyway, enough of the pity party, suffice it to say we go on and do what we can to influence the sphere around us, and what we have been given.  Even if I never get to ever preach in a Church and to a  congregation the elements of salvation and of God's grace (which I have often hungered for) I will instead, feed the poor, visit the sick, the imprisioned, and try with every breath to fulfil the word the lord has commanded us to.  And especially in the time of Now.......when it is most important, as darkness grows around us.  So with faith in tow.....carry on  my wayward son, there will be peace when you are done.............(credit to Kerry Livegren, Kansas)
   

Everyday; The pressing and assault of our Humanity

    Can you wake up today and not be confronted by all the needs of our humanity?  Can you drive along to work and not be confronted by one on the street, who is poor or is at least appearing to be one who is in need and not feel the tug on your heart? Everyday, I know I am confronted with issues that make or break my level of Christianity.  Some days I just want to retreat into my ownself and not be asked any thing of me.  I cannot keep up with all of the issues of those people around me that require me to be well "perfect", as Jesus commanded us to be, those of us who have forsaken all of the things in this world that oppose God's kingdom and will.  I cannot do it and so I look for the grace that Paul preached.  And yet I know that I am far away from the level of righeteouness (that of the Pharisees) who practiced a careful reading of Law and Prophets to attempt to attain Holiness.  They failed and were singled out by John and Jesus both as vipers.  What a word.  And reminded to wash both the inside and outside of the cup. Jesus told his disciples that "my word has made you clean."  This was at the washing of their feet and a teaching that we were to employ ourselves.
    And so, I am constantly battered by the needs, wants of a world spinning much too fast and attuned to a global media that funnels all of life's events into micro-seconds and bites of information that can put me right into a quagmire of well,  a feeling of heaviness that I do not want.
    So how do I go on?  I go on knowing that it is impossible to without a certain faith that does not come from this world or it's teachings, but enters in by one who lived it before me.  Yes I do admit I fail and see all of the still dark corners of my heart at times and yield to self pity and doubts but somehow shake off that and remember my teacher from Israel.  If I don't, then I begin to lose my saltiness as Jesus said and I am good for nothing!  And so everyday something will come at me to challenge my heart, and everyday I will remember that I am not alone, but am surrounded by a multidude of invisible and  sometines unreachable people also on the journey that I am on.  I am also reminded that in the heavenlies, there are those Angels, ministers of fire and of God himself that look on in a kind of wonder at all of the things we must endure, so we can inherit a kingdom not easily seen.
   

Listening to a voice not our own; To redeem the shipwreck of our faith.

     "Give us a King, Give us a King,"  They 'shouted, and so Israel became a nation like any other with a King at the helm of a nation instead of God himself.  Saul was annointed King, blessed in the beginning by the mercy of God, but abandoned and inflicted with a demonic Spirit later on intent on killing the King God would later install for himself....King David.
     So whose voice are we going to listen to today in our own nation? That of a man, subject to a man's whims? and all that goes along with it?  Do we really want to be led by, blasphemous words? Be represented by one who shows wealth and power with gilding of gold leaf on everything owns, with a name stamped on everything he has? Is this the kind of man we are now to choose to shepard a nation of democracy? And are we being blindsided because of what the basest of our own instincts are leading us too? The big " I" is taking over and because most of the nation feels that it has lost something of itself I,e, jobs, border control, terror encroaching, stock market turmoil, and houses lost and the poor becoming poorer?  These in themselves are all representative of the daily fears we must live with. However, when we cede power to man and elect someone to speak for us, we shipwreck our faith.  NO longer do we look upwards to a higher power to seek our refuge in. and that was the undoing of the nation of Israel so many thousands of years ago.  Instead of a nation of Priests, yielding to the voice of the one True Shepard they traded it for a man, and with it they received in that man all of the faults that was within that man.  Taxes, houses and vineyards and the choicest of cattle and stock went now into the King's hand.
   The stark difference between Obama and Trump couldn't be more plain.  Campainging on "Hope" in 2007, and now campaigning on Loss, fear and "becoming "great again"  and raising a deadly hope in the masses.
     Beware of a man that is mocked, and feels slighted,  for In that comes an inner drive of self will that may prove costly for us as a nation.  The undecurrent of our nation surely has changed in the 8 years since Hope was paraded before us and we elected the first African American president to represent us and put behind us ths sins of the past in  the slavery of our fellow man. The restraint of which this President showed in governing, is now maligned and skewed and we are now "weak" according to Trump.  Remember Christ was weak also, and was necessarily so, to listen to the Father's voice and do, exactly what the Father wanted.  Victory was sown in weakness.
     We must not shipwreck our faith, by yielding to everything scripture warns us about when it comes to the desires of man.  In the end, King Saul was run thru by a sword, David died peacefully in his own bed,  after expanding the borders of his nation, and yes David yieded from time to time with his own desires and sinfulness, but he was always aware of it, and sought forgiveness.  Trump in his own words, has never asked for that from God!  Unpredictble says the media, scary, says my Spirit.

MONSTROUS!

     There should be a thousand Hell's waiting for those who inflicted the kind of damage on the city of Aleppo, Syria.  Todays' pics in the Washington Post are horrendous, terrifying, and most of all heartbreaking.  The city is rubble, the hospital bombed to total unrecognition and those who were inside serving in healthcare as
Dr's, and nurses and those who were there as unfortunate victims of war killed indiscriminently for just being there.  Most of all one picture stirrs the most sadness, of a boy who lost his brother who said, "my father has lost the love of his life."  and the boy further said ," I wish it was me."
     For all those who think that war is glory, think again and look at the loss in the faces of those the Washington Post has captured. We here in America cannot comprehend the loss these people suffer.  No homes, no food, no medical, and no shelter from overhead death that comes in the form if thunderous jets reigning terror in an instant.  most of all there is no recognition of anything that resembles civilization!

In The Eyes of God;we are but dust....

     God knows our true frame, dust;  We, however strive to be so much more everyday.  Just look at the fantastic things we have done.  Trips to the moon, under the sea, on the highest of high mountains,  dreams and 'notions' to be so much more than to "return to the earth from which we came."  How can all of the cells in the body, the millions of genetic code be just.....dust?  I don't know.  And neither do the smartest scientists of today or yesteryear.  When the breath goes out of us, we are gone, lifeless, still and relegated to another to take  care of the body we now have left.  Yes I say left, beause I know that the Spirit and breath of God now is somewhere else, not in the tent of the flesh we left behind.  Our western culture is so infused with a material thinking that we make light of other cultures much more spiritual than ours including those we disposessed from this land, the Indians.  Through our own effort we replace the need for God.  And that is why we come away empty when all of the toys of this life no longer fulfill.  We then seek mystical experiences and call those who do fanatics and fringe people who live on the outskirts of what most others do and we call it crazy. But what if?  There is in that seeking, the root of a truth, we have left behind?
     We were made in God's image so it says in Genesis, (the beginning).  And I find it somewhat curious, that the Hebrews were commanded not to make any image of God, or animals or anything else to be a God.  ???? If we were made in the image of God then we well, look like him!  If then this is true how did this  degenerate into stone figures, and images so far removed from us? God's annointed was ....a man. A Messiah to bring us a return to truth.  And a return to the Spiritual state we lost.  A religious system replaced the the reverance we should have continued to give to our God who created us and placed in us in the beginning the ability do do wondrous things.  Name all the animals?  I can't even remember someone's name I worked with years later when I meet them again out of a familiar place!  I can't remember what I had for breakfast let alone name Commorants, Osprey, Whales, Donkeys, or Pigs and imbue in that name a characteristic that defines that species.  (stubborn as a donkey) etc. etc.  So I think in an effort to be more than we are we have become "Marvelized" and become superheroes because it is fun to do and dream of the impossible.  Action movies and double 00"s that don't get hurt from 30 foot falls, and then get up and dust (no pun intended) themselves off! 

Facing up to the coward within.

Yep, I confess, I am more coward than I believed I was. How do I know this?
Because when alone, there is a certain fear within that I face. I wouldn't have believed it was so, but alas, it is.  You see I went to observe some people, some in precarious places of station in life and suddenly I realized I was a fish out of water.  Suddenly not in my element of comfort and I felt naked!  I wanted to serve those who had to say the least not much of anything and share the Gospel, And of course, many of those who I wanted to serve were gathered in a place that was ....rough in elemental form. A rough and tumble place in our city.  So, I observed from afar, and left, afraid to be there or approach alone what I would later do with others, from our Church.  So I left and waited for my friends.  Other Christians who would also serve, but together in a group not alone.  So, yes I felt ashamed all at once, and I remembed Peter, and Jesus's forewarning of denial. Peter said he would never deny Christ, but, when push came to shove, he did.  So, when later my friends showed up I felt much better and strengthened by their nearness, but nevertheless, I knew my newfound feelings and shame.
     However, later on I was somewhat vindicated, simply by the fact that, down below where we were serving food for those who came a fight had broken out among the men, and it was not pretty.  Testosterone erupted rather quickly, and I'm quite sure from observing those in line, they had knives attatched to belts for defensive reasons with 6 to 7 inch blades!  So I learned a lesson.  Don't be stupid for Jesus!  Safety in Numbers.....David.

They Are Now HIs Witnesses To Our People, (those who traveled with Christ)

     We tell you the Good News:
     You've heard it before Now hear it again!  Yes Good news has been spread and is being spread every day that you live.  One day though it will end, and be too late to hear ever again.
     The Gospel will never be old news.  If it is or becomes so, then something is wrong inside and a refreshing is needed.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ and the proclaimed Kingdom of God is here to stay.  Though there be controversies, debates, errors, cults, and so many more things to pervert, the Gospel remains intact and a light to light the path for everyone's feet who so chooses to open their ears but for a second.
     Once, a long time ago, an Old man, a preacher, and a faithful Church planter, let me help him in his way to spread the word,  Oh, no!  tracts!  Yes the old time way to spread a simple message.  It simply said, " The entrance of thy word, giveth light." A Psalm.   A Simple ground shaking message meant to light the heart up.  YOu see the Good news will always shed light, because it is truth and a word that is not perishable from God's mouth to us.  It is intended now to do what the Apostles did orally, make known the mystery and message of the Messiah, God's chosen to bring light into a dark world.   Think this is not necessary?  Look around, open up your eyes, there is death and darkness all around, even in the midst of  say, a "good day."  YOu see that is what I believed before light entered in my heart.  I chose to look only at the good, see the good in all  or everything, naieve at best.  And this was because I was sheltered, brought up  in a good stable home and had safety.  But when the bottom dropped, then my eyes were open wide to the darkness at work also.
     The Devil is very clever that way,  give us everything we need, and we become blind, take the dependency away and poof!  The Devil will appear like magic and all of a sudden you will see all the places he works in.  Families, yes, job, yes, health, yes, money, yes, every where there is air, there he will be a power to influence.  After all this is where he was cast down to.
    Now not to center on him, anymore, we center on just exactly what can counter his influence.....the name of Jesus, and his indwelling power to re-new!  Peace.


    ( By the way), When I offered to help print those old-time tracts for this man of peace and faithful servant, guess where the opposition came from to stop this.....another pastor who was threatened by an 86 year old man.  Suddenly his ministry was encroached upon and this couldn't exist along side!  Horrors!

Wuh? Happening?

Today I woke up dead! And for the life of me (no pun intended) I can't figure out what happened! I felt ok, when I went to bed. Didn't feel any pain, or atleast I don't remember it now.  How Odd....where am I now?  Oh! Look at me...I'm not quite myself.  My body...it's light, I don't feel myself I feel I guess you could say nothing, absolutely nothing!  But my mind, it's still the same. Do I have memories, check, do I have that.  Do I have emotions....check, I feel strange, somehow dis-connected.  Wait...something is coming towards me.  What? or should I say who?  Someone is walking towards me very quietly, very deliberately.
     I suddenly feel fear. I'm shaking. I'm feeling desperately like I want to hide but, there is nothing to hide behind, I'm totally in the open, exposed, my heart, is racing, but wait....I'm dead, remember?  why do I feel like this! Now I see more clearly, it's a man, a man in robes?  Yes white, very white robes.  And now my legs they are rubber, they won't hold, I'm slipping to the ground? But no ground, the closer he gets the worse I feel!  Help!  Help!  Someone please get me out of here, I can't stand the brightness!  Please anyone else out there?  No....no one...just me and him.
      I'm done, I feel it somehow,   though I feel also an intensity from this man, a great intense un-explainable love but not for me.....!  Darkness,  Darkness,  I'm swallowed up in  darkness all around, voices calling, crying, yelling out, but suddenly I'm caught in a pit, i'm restrained, caught by my arm, legs bound too!   Nooooooooo!   I see me, I see others, they see me and turn away.  I look up from where I was.  I see the man, white robed, with burning eyes, and a face, such a face, pure and  Holy, totally, Holy, and I can't even get near.........at all.....too late, I know it.  

    Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the Earth; I made a spectacle of you before Kings, by your many sins......
   
           
   

THE LAST BATH I TAKE

I AIN'T TAKIN NO DIRT BATH,
I'M BEIN COUGHT UP BY LIGHTIN AND THE LORD'S FLASH
MY BODY MAY BE LYIN IN STATE
BUT MY MIND AND SPIRIT WILL REALLY RELATE
TO THE ONE WHO TAKES AWAY ALL THE PAIN
 IT'S GOIN TO BE MY HOLY GAIN
LIKE THE WHEAT KERNEL IN THE GROUND
RISIN UP IN THE SPRING TIME
THROUGH THE GROUND AND GRIME
MY LORD IS MINE ALL MINE

The Truth of The Gospel: Preserved For You

Number	Statistic
7,000	Approximate number of languages spoken in the world today
2,195	Number of translations into new languages currently in progress
1,329	Number of languages with a translation of the New Testament
531	Number of languages with a translation of the Bible (Protestant Canon

We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. Gal. 2:5.

     So, How so how do we know that the Gospel is true?  The illustration above comes from wikipedia and the quote below it is from Paul.  The Bible as we know it today if we can trust it has been re-written and tranlated over centuries. And so it gives fodder to those who want to disbelieve it a chance to by the mere fact that perhaps it has been mis-translated and perhaps  in error!  Not so.  As the quote from Galatians states, Paul had to inform the Galatians the "truth" because there were false believers trying to infiltrate the early Church and pervert the Good News.  Paul, unlike the other Apostles, who were eyewitness to Jesus's ministry and teachings had to receive it by direct revelation.  This in itself must have proved a challenge both for him and his new listeners or should I say new converts.  It was precisely because of this fact that Paul was challenged, but in an effort to stand in truth he went to Jerusalem and stood before Peter and the others to explain his burden and his ministry to the Gentiles.  He was received and you know the rest.....It is by inspiration men were moved to write down testimony of their Lord and pass it on.  It was God who saw to it by the fact that if indeed truth was lost by the  many tranlations and oral histories passed down, then we would not have evidence to the fact that the Holy Spirit is still being poured out today in the very same way 2000 years ago.  Proof that in essence, nothing has been lost at all, and God is true as is the Gospel.  Through cannonization we can trust we have the real McCoy!  And we can trust the Holy Spirit, in us as a deposit for us and a helper in our lives and as witness to the truth of Jesus's life and victory over death and sin. 

     

      On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the taskof preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised,[a] just as Peter had been to the circumcised.[b] 8 For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9