John.....and Earl

In the 1990s my wife, son and I had the wonderful experience of befriending two men who were elderly in the physical state but childlike mentally for they had spent their entire lives in institutions, the last of which was by far the best and provided a peaceful time of repose before they crossed that river into the Celestial City... as Bunyan would write of it. I had written a eulogy for John, he the teacher and me the student, and came across it tonight as I was rummaging through old papers and thought that I would share it with you:

John's mother passed away when he was very young but the memories remained seventy years later. One was that his mother told him "John, you will be a king one day." John's father remarried and gave away all the children to relatives. Mentally, John remained a child. He did not go with relatives but to institutions where he lived until his death December 30th, 1999 at the age of 79. In 1977 John came to this nursing home to live. He was a source of joy and inspiration to the staff, his neighbors, to the various professionals and ministers that he would meet and to all that would be honored to be his friend. To know John was to dispel any doubts that mental acumen is what defines character. To know him also makes it abundantly understood that a disability applies only to that particular area affected. John had the ability to teach, not in the context that we think of most, but by example. He taught us to be dedicated. The overwhelming testimony of those who knew him was that if there were a Christian service at the nursing home, John would not only be there but he would be the first to arrive. He taught us how to be a true friend. One staff member was moved when after saying something critical in John's presence of his friend Earl, John's gentle rebuke of "He's my friend!" had its correctional affect. John taught us how to give as he freely gave to his friend from his few possessions. He taught how to forgive unkindness and forget past offences. He even taught us how to think, for upon seeing a picture of his most beloved friend Jesus with a crown of thorns on His head and blood upon His brow... John cried. Whereas I came to love the same Jesus, this reaction was not within my capacity to think or consider. John was a true teacher in how to be thankful of our blessings and look forward to the day when all tears would be dried. Today, John is with his Jesus, with his friend Earl and many others whom he loved. He was a soldier and fought the good fight. He leaves us humbly to carry on. He positively affected this world in the task he was given. He contributed in mighty ways. The story was told to his surviving brother and other family members who travelled cross country to honor John, that he once played the part of a king in a play at the nursing home and said "My mother told me I would be a king one day." John, who never attended school, was graduated to heaven with honors and given a crown. The Bible tells us that we will throw our crowns at the feet of another, something that John would have done even here on earth.

The Gideons.....Redux

 

The following blog entry is from May 31st of 2010:

 

The Gideons

 

The Apollo 8 mission of 1968 saw, for the first time, man leave the gravitational pull of the earth and come under the same force of another heavenly body. Frank Borman commanded the mission that included James Lovell and William Anders. On Christmas Eve, on the ninth orbit of the Moon, with the world watching on television, Commander Borman read the first ten verses from the book of Genesis:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth
The earth was without form, and void; darkness was on the face of the waters.
Then God said, "Let there be light", and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.
God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.
Then God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.
Then God said; "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. (NKJV)

There was a Japanese correspondent watching this on television from his hotel and called NASA for a copy of the script that the astronaut was reading. He was asked where he was calling from and told to look in the desk drawer and he would see it in the first ten verses of the first book, Genesis, of the Gideons Bible that would be there. The correspondent was impressed that NASA Public Relations would leave him an advance copy of the script!

In 1982, as a new Christian, my wife and I were on our first and only cruise. (We have had another since then) As we rounded the western end of Cuba there was a storm that rocked the boat so much that the passengers could do nothing but sit in their cabins. Too new of a believer to even bring a Bible with me, I opened the desk drawer and there was the Gideon Bible. I opened it and read the first verses that my eyes came upon. It was the 93rd Psalm. As the boat rocked, I read:

 

The LORD reigns, He is clothed with majesty;

The LORD is clothed,

He has girded Himself with strength.

Surely the world is established,

so that it cannot be moved.

Your throne is established from of old;

You are from everlasting.

 

The floods have lifted up, O LORD,

The floods have lifted up their voice;

The floods lift up their waves.

The LORD on high is mightier

Than the noise of many waters,

Than the mighty waves of the sea. (this as items were sliding off our table)

Your testimonies are very sure;
Holiness adorns Your house,
O LORD, forever. (NKJV) 

 

I'm writing this blog from a motel room and the ever present Gideons Bible is in the drawer. They have distributed over 1.5 billion Bibles since 1908 and I am reminded of Romans 10:15b:
How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. (NIV)

 

Note: The figure today is 1.7 billion!

Stone-cold Sober

The second term swearing-in ceremony for Barack Obama is scheduled for Monday the 21st of January. The mainstream news media will glory in it and America's enemies around the world will celebrate while there is nothing that we can do about it. Eight days later there is another show event but in this one we can make a necessary statement to all Americans, to the world and to Barack Obama. The annual State Of The Union speech is scheduled for Tuesday February 3rd. I've written about this topic a few times before and will include one of those blogs here. Most of us have seen the 1957 film Bridge On The River Kwai that starred William Holden, Alec Guinness and Sessue Hayakawa. At the end of the movie Colonel Nicholson (Guinness) realized that he had, through ignorance and pride, aided and abetted the enemy of his own country and of freedom and liberty everywhere. He looked skyward as I recall and uttered these words..."What have I done?" Many in America will one day utter those same words about Barack Obama while many Republicans in our Congress may wish that they hadn't politely clapped while Barack Obama ascended this throne for the fourth time. The event, should we elude catastrophe that far, should be boycotted by Republicans or at the very least met will cold silence but they will probably once again be more concerned with media criticism than where this administration is quickly taking us. But this wouldn't be bipartisan bickering or anything near it, rather stone-cold sober dealing with a philosophy and an agenda that is trying to destroy our Constitutional Republic and bury belief in God... its very benefactor.

Speech From The Throne, January 24, 2012

You may remember how in last year's State of the Union address certain members of Congress came up with the idea of a new seating arrangement where Republicans and Democrats sat together instead of in the traditional left aisle and right aisle separation of the parties? The reason given for this idea that became known as Date Night was for a show of bipartisanship after the shooting of United States Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. You may also remember how one Supreme Court Justice, Samuel Alito, refused to attend for personal reasons? Article II, Section 3 of our Constitution states of our President, He shall from time to time give to Congress Information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. The President is not required to appear in person and give a speech. In fact, President Thomas Jefferson refused to give this report as a speech for he considered it too close to the Speech from the Throne in the monarchical traditions. I assume that you read the newspapers and follow the news with more of a passing interest if you have read this far in a blog of this nature. You have seen how in just the last few days alone this President has continued and even expanded upon his radical circumventing of the Constitution. How far does this President have to go in his arrogance before the Republican members of Congress, en masse, realize and proclaim that a takeover of our Constitutional Republic is taking place? If last year's seating change was a response to a current event, may I suggest that the latest current event, the assault on our Constitution, be the catalyst for another temporary alteration of tradition, that being that Republicans would refuse to applaud the arrival of the President. Let the Democrats who have surrendered their party to the Alinskyite cabal glory as their king ascends his throne, and let the American public see first hand, for the media will never accurately describe what is taking place, that they had better pay more attention to the issues not only separating political parties but separating America from its past and its Constitution. What would the repercussions be for such a protest? The media has such great respect for protests going on all over the world and here in our cities, surely they would report it as such? No, this wouldn't classify as a protest to them but rather an abominable show of disrespect for the President of the United States for all the world to see. John Boehner, Speaker of the House, needs to find some answer to prevent but another instance of Barack Obama using a media event to bludgeon truth and distort reality. At the very least, the Republicans needs to show unity that they will not accept a media enthroned king, nor sit idly by as the scepter is waved over his appointees who will never have to report to Congress, nor answer to the American people.

Planting An Orchard

A letter writer inquired of an expert on how to reduce the productivity of a fruit tree that was bearing bad fruit and causing a stench in his yard. This is from the Chicago-Tribune where Chicago is well known for producing bad fruit. The answer given was that it is very difficult to completely stop a fruit tree from bearing fruit and recommended that the writer tear down the tree and replace it with an ornamental tree that he can take pleasure by gazing at it. Jesus used the analogy of false prophets and bad fruit trees in the seventh chapter of Matthew: "Ye shall know them by their fruits.....even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit....wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." Our Congress is full of corrupt trees that bear bad fruit. In taking the experts advice we should remove the bad trees and replace them. The Republican Establishment would have us replace them with ornamental trees that we can gaze at for our satisfaction but they produce no fruit at all. South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint is an expert on "good trees" in Congress. This past election saw three new senators....good trees....added to the Senate to go along with the five senators added in 2010, this primarily through the work of the Senate Conservatives Fund. Whether it is in the Senate or the House of Representatives we need to plant good trees and hope that we have time to see them produce good fruit. Here is an anecdote about Martin Luther that I have given before: someone once asked him what he would do if he knew for certain that Jesus would return the next day. His answer was that he would plant a tree... today! His intention was to show that we cannot be idle, that instead Jesus would find us working to the glory of God upon his return. Politically we are trying to get good fruit from bad trees and it is not going to happen. It takes time for a new orchard to mature so let's keep this in the proper perspective, plant the trees, or in other words elect good senators and representatives to our Congress, but not sit back and expect them to provide all the sustenance of our Republic. We have work to do in our culture, in our families, in the church and in our own lives. Support Senator DeMint at www.conservativesfund.org for he, and others, are planting an orchard that will bear good fruit should God have mercy upon us to see it mature but let's pay even more attention to our Creator who provides the soil, the sun and the water for all trees to grow.

Personal Manifesto

PERSONAL MANIFESTO

The free men of the thirteen colonies chose who, or in this case "what" was to be their king. They made this decision for those who were not free or could not vote, slaves, indentured servants, the native population and women. Indeed, not all that were free made that decision for many wanted no part of independence from England, but the die was cast...they had crossed their Rubicon, and a nation would arise. Their first choice was independence, their second was a representative government and their third was a constitutional republic. That constitution would rule in the affairs of the whole through the administration of those chosen by the majority. Our representatives are bound by that piece of paper and that paper allows for amendments to it which eventually gave freedom and suffrage to all. Our Supreme Court is bound by that same paper and judges are bound by the laws that that constitution permits us to make for ourselves. Man (please allow that generic term) is fallible....more than fallible, even prone for error. Indeed, the Founding Fathers knew his and made every attempt to secure the preeminence of the Constitution against the whims and machinations of man himself, for he may see what he wants to see in the words therein and not what is in effect there, and may sit in the judgment seat fully convinced of his own interpretation. He may even come to despise the words of his own fathers and their intent but keep this to himself as he twists the self-evident truths before him. Others will call him to account on this. If they are successful, the nation will go on as designed. A Proverb of Solomon says "Those who forsake the law, praise the wicked, but such as keep the law contend with them." If those who contend fail, the nation will proceed as an entirely new entity. The Constitution will no longer be the ultimate rule for it will be little more than a handmaiden to the autonomy of man himself, changing as different men ascend to power, changing as the winds of self-indulgence change course, changing as the powers of one group becomes stronger than the powers of another. Another proverb of Solomon says "He who pampers his servant from childhood, will have him as a son in the end." At first glance one might think that this recommends pampering for it will buy a son but in actuality it says that to pamper a servant will cause that servant to demand his rights as a son. A charitable society will receive honor but an entitlement society, built on bribes, will fall from within. Lex Rex...the law is our temporal king. It is to the law that we owe our allegiance. It is to the Constitution that we gave powers over us, not to those who represent us in upholding that Constitution. Our prayer to the King of Kings is not for the Constitution but for those who administer it. They do not have our allegiance but our prayers which is more valuable. Insofar as they do not legislate against the specific laws of God we are subject to those laws. If they do, we are subject to our responsibility to elect those who will not depart from the intentions of those who designed the freedoms and the liberties with reverence for Almighty God, and dependence upon their Creator that this nation was built upon.

Is This You?.......Redux

It's my opinion, after roughly thirty years of observation, that many men want what other men seem to have in their Christian faith but haven't the slightest idea of how to find it. There is an angst that eats away at them but the confusion and the fears seem too much to navigate. They are almost right. A man in that situation cannot navigate around the shoals and through the tempests of this world, not without trust in the One at the helm. The following blog is from October 4 of 2009.

Is This You?

So you are over 30 years old... a husband and father, You are established in your job and there is a regular crew of friends that you and your wife get together with on weekends. You have a church that you are members of and attend regularly. The kids have their Sunday School. You are living the American Dream, but there are a couple of problems that are nagging at you more and more. The first is that the American Dream may turn into a nightmare. You can handle this but it is your children that you are worried about. It gets worse. The second problem is that you are coming to believe that there is more to this God thing than you had always believed. Sure, you never considered denying God, that wasn't necessary. Nothing in your life was so compromising that you were forced to either become antagonistic towards religion or change your life. There is a peace that comes over you when you consider Jesus as Savior and not just a name. There is something rock solid about that Bible you pick up when alone but that peace vanishes when you think of how you could be lumped with those weird born agains if you take this any further. There has to be a middle way. No, you know that there isn't for you have been living the middle way and there is no peace there, no Savior and no Word of God. This problem has been going on for a while. You tried the conservative politics way where you openly deplore the anti-God people, thereby placing you in the God camp, but that only increases the guilt of keeping God at arms length. You blame the Christian that you work with for not being perfect and you blame your wife for not dragging you further towards this Christ, thereby making it a little bit easier on you, but like Jimmy Buffet's song, the excuses don't work and you know that it is your own fault. Here is some advice to consider. You start by being honest. Ask forgiveness of your wife for not being the head of the family and insuring that God was the center of your family. At the very next family meal, you tell the children that as a family you are going to thank God for the food on the table for it is a blessing from Him. You tell them from this day forward you are going to try to acknowledge God in every area of your lives. They are going to see you studying your Bible every night and when you have learned enough, you are going to teach them. At work your task is a little bit more difficult. You wait for the first time that a negative comment is made about born again Christians, it won't take long, and you simply say I'm moving towards these people. I have neglected God. I see myself in need of Him now and won't neglect Him anymore. As for church, this is the hardest problem of all. You know that you may eventually have to leave where you are but haven't the slightest idea where to go. In due time you will know enough to find a church with other Christians of like mind, most of whom have travelled the path you are about to take. Are you worried about the embarrassment for you and your family should you fail? I don't blame you for you have seen others fail and it's not a pretty sight. The good news is that it is God's task to keep you from discouragement such that you would fail, and He Himself never, ever fails! You know what trust is, right? Your children trust you in how many things? In this case, you are the one that must trust. How do I know this? I've been there. The day will come when you will thank God every day, throughout every day, for His mercies and for the joy He has given you. These steps that I mentioned are only personal advice, but what is not just advice is the trust. If you are having these feelings about God's goodness, the God whom you have neglected, then God is moving within you right now! If you could not trust God... then he would be no God. Do you have any plans on giving up on loving and protecting your family? Of course not, and you are but a mere mortal. Just one Scripture verse for you should you decide to set out for the Celestial City as Bunyan's Christian did in Pilgrim's Progress.... Romans 8:31 If God is for us, who can be against us?

 

Here is valuable tool that was not available when this blog was written. You're navigating the Internet right now so you should have no problem with it.....www.refnet.fm/

Post Tenebras Lux

Roughly twelve hours from my beginning this particular blog pastors will be taking the pulpits of America, at least in the Eastern time zone, and continuing each hour for the few hours after that as the earth turns to greet the new Lord's Day. America's decline is rapidly speeding up and we were given a glimpse of that in the aftermath of the superstorm that wreaked havoc on the east coast. We have an election for president coming up that could be described as theater of the absurd. I'm sitting in front of a fireplace and just as I ended that last sentence the small flickering flame died out as is what will happen to the small flame of liberty and Christianity in America if we continue as we are, seeking our own will over God's, our own glory over His.  Our only hope is in those pulpits and there are no signs, to my knowledge anyway, that they are being infused with life. God is longsuffering but we have taken him to the limit on this. My hope for some time has been that I would begin to hear stories about church services where a deathly pall fell over the congregation, where the stillness of despair overwhelmed the festivities of the day, where the pastor's ever-present smile was now a frown as if he was preaching from a bombed out sanctuary. Eighteenth century pastor and theologian Jonathon Edwards preached more on love than he did on hell but his sermon Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God had just such effects on his congregation at the time. God has been warning us for quite some time now. I watched more football today than in the last twenty years combined as I was lured by the Pitt/Notre Dame game, a game which I lived for way back then. After about an hour I was shaken by the memory of the power that sport once held over me. The coward in me pleads with God to awaken us before judgement comes. There are no signs of life but signs all around of judgment. Many others see this. I'm not the only one. Maybe Monday morning I'll hear a story about someone's strange church service filled with dread. Maybe God will have mercy upon us once again. There was a Latin phrase widely used at the time of the Reformation....post tenebras lux, after darkness...light. Jesus said "I am the light of the world." This is our hope....not political elections.