Peace On Earth. . .

There’s a scene from some movie that just popped itself into my mind. There’s an angry man spouting off about something, and another man says to him, “Ah, does someone need a hug?” Anger isn’t exactly an emotion; rather it attempts to cover an emotion. And a hug from “Mom” can go a long way to rid one of anger, expose the underlying emotion, and sooth it. Unless, that is, that a person has a problem with Mom. Dr. Sigmund Freud was hung up on “Mom” and sex, and peoples Oedipus-like desires to have sex with their moms and kill there fathers. He thought that while we were still babies our fantasies centered around having Mom all to our selves and not letting Dad near her. It didn’t work too well, and some people never got over it all. They grow up to find other ways to get even with their moms and dads.

So with 300 million people living in America and a social media that puts everyone in everyone else’s face all the time, feathers are going to be ruffled as we play out our Oedipus fantasies on each other. People have their underlying emotions stirred, that then surge, and the result is that angry words spew forth. People discover there are other people that feel the same way, and they gather together to protest someone they feel has offended them. Lately it’s been presidential candidates who’ve modeled the use of verbal assault weapons, and become the object of protests. Conflict. And the television/internet media gets to watch, film, and report all of it to an eager audience, perpetuating the cycle of conflict.

Why can’t people just get along? Why isn’t there peace on Earth?

Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. [Jesus said]
— Matthew 10:34

Why? Why does it seem there needs to be conflict? In a writing class, I was once instructed on the use of conflict and resolution. In a story the author allows conflict to drive the story along. building a certain tension. At some point the author must allow the reader to feel resolution, too. There must be some form of resolution after conflict has built or the reader will feel let down.

Just as conflict drive an author’s story, so does it drive our lives. But conflict is only useful if we are able to find a resolution to the conflict. A solution. An answer. Conflict drives us to look for answers.

On the back of a Jeep was a bumper sticker that summed this issue up well. It read:

Jesus is the Answer. Now, What was the Question?

Been too long. . .

. . . that I’ve made notes on this electronic page. I’ve failed to write, to journal, to set thoughts to electronic paper, let alone real paper. I’ve told myself that it takes so long, that I don’t have time. I’ve told myself I really don’t have anything to write about, or that there’d be anyone that would be interested anyway. As with other times there are no real excuses. Yet, this last month, though I’ve thought so highly of myself that I convinced myself that I’m really doing pretty good, beneath it all, I’ve really felt hammered, like a bent nail stuck in a piece of hard wood that is continually being hit, to be made straight. On the bright side:

. . . we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of G-d.

We are destined to feast with the Lord. We are! Thank you Lord Y’shuaJesus.

I have been going through slides and negatives, scanning them and putting them on a the computer. Here’s one I am particularly fond of. It was taken at a pastoral conference in Lake Hume, Californina, which is up in the Sierra Mountains. I don’t recall the name of the man in the photo, unfortunately.

Tranquil Lake Hume, and a time of contemplation and communion. (c) Wil Robinson, 1987.

I awoke this morning dreaming of a pastor conducting a wedding. “I now,” he said, “pronounce you. . . er. . .ahhhh. . . married.” My first thought as I rose from my bed was that it wasn’t too terribly long ago that no one would think a thing if a pastor said, “I now pronounce you man and wife!” We’ve learned different ways, now. While it may not have been intended, the old way said a wife is the property of a man. I suppose most men and women wouldn’t think of their husband or wife as real property, yet there a few that do so. I know a person who, ten minutes after being pronounced a man’s wife, found herself in total bondage to crazy person, and suffered thirty years of abuse. And even now, after divorce, church folks give her emotional grief for her “sin” of divorce. It’s not, of course, limited to women being abused. Bobby’s wife may not outwardly display her ownership over her husband, yet she is so self-centered, so narcissistic, that she considers herself the only real person that exists–everyone else is simply an extension of her.

So for the last decade or so, pastors pronounced a newly married couple husband and wife. Works for me. T’s a natural choice of words. But that’s not why the pastor in my dream was having a problem. He was struggling with what are the standard words today, in America. An America that is turned upside down. And America that says marriage is between two people, not between a man and a woman. I could go like this: “I now pronounce you husband and husband.” Or “wife and wife.” Should the pastor completely drop the gender aspects, saying, “I now pronounce you spouses”? Maybe it should be “I now pronounce you married.” Is that general enough? Non-specific enough? Give me a break. I’m too old for this nonsense.

I can hear Jim Morrison (Doors, 1967), singing “This is the End. . . ”

Provoking Fear

As I’ve followed more closely current events and reporting over the last several months, I see three broad divisions in news reporting originating here in America. The first is what has become to be known as the mainstream media (MSM). These include corporately owned outlets such as CNN, Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, and the major newspapers and magazines that publish online, such as the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and my favorite, the Christian Science Monitor. While there are hundreds of television networks and print media, I’ve read that all are owned by only six corporations. Interesting, if true.

Generally, all media in this division report the news in a journalistic fashion, using a variety of sources, are written in a news-reporting style, and, unless in an opinion column, leave out opinions except where quoted by a source. Can these news outlets slant the news? Of course. How a report is put together, the various sources and what they say, and IF an event is even reported, all work toward a particular self-interest.

The second group are not outwardly owned by corporate media, are relatively well written and well reported, yet occasionally contain some reporter opinion within the main articles. An example would be Breitbart. These sites offer their own take on the news that is reported in the mainstream, as well as adding news that isn’t generally covered, or is covered in a limited way.

Then there are the individuals and small teams that say they report the news that the mainstream media isn’t telling us. They know something that the mainstream either doesn’t know, isn’t paying attention to, or doesn’t want you to know. At least that’s what they’ll tell us. This group is collectively referred to as “conspiracy theorists.” Yet while they aren’t corporately owned, many are heavily sponsored by one company. My favorite in this category is Steve Quayle. Most of the articles are links to other, similar, news sources. Of those written by Mr. Quayle, I read that he’s a Christian, believes that satin with come to Earth through a stargate, and will do so very soon, perhaps in September during the final blood moon. Many in the category of news quote each other. Mr. Quayle becomes an expert that is quoted by the All News Pipeline, for instance.

These news outlets have in common a lack of journalistic style, poor grammar, dubious sources or un-named sources, and after an article or two, leave me wanting to run, not walk, for the hills in abject fear of any of a hundred very horrible things that are about to happen, and happen especially to me. Often, we are called “shepple,” and ridiculed for not believing in what they write, by believing the mainstream media, whom they say are liars. We all, we are told, are being lied to by government officials. One of these websites that foretells of the fall of money, that the banks will soon close their doors along with our access to what we though was our money, will sell us silver and gold. Mostly they give away fear.

The thing about these sites, another common bond, is that there is a thread of truth to their writing. Take the simple fact that our own government is spying on us, has set up fake cell phone towers to listen in on our phone conversations and read our texts, and does have a very large database that tracks us. This we know, if we are any bit an American citizen, is completely against our rights under the Constitution. From this simple fact of spying conducted against Americans by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), these blogger newsies tell us our names are compiled into a “red list.” They say this list that will be used this summer to raid our homes and drag us all off to concentration camps. They say there are thousands of “disposable coffins” stashed for ready use. Wait, disposable coffins? Does that mean there are also reusable coffins?

But wait, there’s more. To continue the Orwellian nightmare, the military exercise this summer know as Jade Helm 15, has train cars with shackles in the floors traveling to the southern states, foreign troops being smuggled into America through our southern border, and lots of stuff is being stored in closed-down Walmarts in several states. There are even tunnels beneath most Walmarts we are told, that lead to airports and connect other Walmarts and military bases. All of this so troops can freely move about. (Back in the day I used to shop at the Post Exchange, but maybe Walmart is under contract.) And the reason for the military exercise coming up? Well, if we wouldn’t bury our heads in the sand, if we’d wake up, these newsies tell us, then we’d know that the military is practicing for martial law and confiscation of our guns. Well, confiscating guns somebody’s, that is. Can’t get guns from homes where there are none.

NOTE TO NSA, or to whomever: See, I’ve just been doing some research. Really. Please take my name of the Main Core watch list now. Thanks in advance. Yours Truly, Wil Robinson.

Seriously, though. There are things happening that aren’t explainable. There are wars and rumors of wars. There are earthquakes and Tsunamis. Fish are dying in the Pacific Ocean, chickens and turkeys in several northern states of America. There are riots and there is lawlessness in the land. And don’t forget the desertification of my home state of California, the once-great Republic of California that we so affectionally called the ROC. And what about the spiritual forces, dark forces, that are moving gullible men and women to commit acts, or support them, that are abominable in the eyes of our Lord Y’shuaJesus. Certainly we are on the eve of destruction, and the Second Coming is, well, coming.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

—Second Coming, by William Butler Yeats

For some interesting notes and links to “end time” fulfillment of Biblical prophesy see Running from Babylon.

Let us pray that we not fall prey to fear, that we look to the Lord and to His Word, which is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. The lamp that shows us where we are, where we stand; the light thats illuminates the path upon which we are to journey.

Let us pray we look not to the hills to rescue us, but the Lord of Heaven, the Creator, the Father of our Lord Y’shuaJesus.

Let us pray we have the strength and wisdom to act in accordance with the will of our Lord Y’shuaJesus. We are not to simple stand by, watching and waiting, but we are called to some action, or will be soon.

Let us be prudent and store up that which is appropriate against the day in which there will be nothing left in stores, or that we are not allowed to buy (see Revelation 13.)

May G-d have mercy upon us in these troubled times.

The Staff of G-d, the Sword of Joshua

Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’s hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword.

—Exodus 17:8-13

It makes sense that Moses should stand upon a hill, above the battle, with upheld arms. The symbolism seems clear. Moses raising his arms, yielding to the will of G-d, his own strength wanes. Aaron and Hur support Moses, allowing him to continue to hold high the staff of G-d. The staff symbolizes authority. It is upon G-d’s authority that Moses sends Josua and the people of G-d into battle. Somewhere I read that the names Aaron and Hur meant Praise and Word. This, too, makes sense. For holding up the arms of Moses, supporting the waning strength is:

Praise of G-d
Word of G-d

But let us not deceive ourselves into thinking that all it takes to gain victory over an enemy is to stand upon the authority of G-d, holding up the Word of G-d as our justification, lifting our hands, our arms in praise. For there, below Moses, boots hit the ground, weapons found their mark. The people of G-d fought for liberty from their enemy, an enemy that would enslave them.

And some 3,000 years later—two-hundred and forty years ago—farmers on what is now American soil stood together against another form of enslavement: British imperial tyranny. They stood together for Liberty. They stood together for Justice. And so it began in Lexington, not far from Boston, that well-trained British soldiers were ordered to move against the colonial people, against farmers and craftsmen. They were ordered to subdue men and women, untrained in the art of war. But the colonist stood bravely against the “red coats.’ Ordered to give up their arms, they refused. Shots were fired. Shooting continued into their backs as they ran. Men died, including their commander. This was the battle, really a massacre, of Lexington. But. . .

. . .came Concord. On April 19th, 1775, things would be different. It began a mile out of Concord, at Meriam’s Corner, as the red coats crossed a bridge, still exuberant from their victory and sacking of Lexington. They marched toward Boston. They met more untrained farmers and craftsmen. But this time, the red coats faced a different tactic, one we call guerrilla warfare.

“By the rude bridge that arched the flood
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Even now, the significance of Lexington and Concord awakens a response in Americans that goes far beyond the details of the day or the identity of the foe. An unmilitary people, at first overrun by trained might, had eventually risen in their wrath and won a hard but splendid triumph.” —Author Willard Wallace

Wait. So G-d won’t destroy the United States next year?

While there continue to be many of our American Churches that display the bold signs requesting that G-d Bless America, there continue to be many who feel G-d has no reason to Bless America, and should, in fact, cause its destruction. These people would say that Christians in America have let the country down. They would say that Christians allowed America’s decline by allowing it to foolishly follow the ways of the world, the entrapment of money, to fall into the pit of immorality. Christians are, some how, responsible for not stopping it. Whatever. . .

So lets do some simple figuring, comparing.

So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived. Genesis 19:29

G-d didn’t hold Lot responsible for Sodom, the town in which he lived. In fact, had G-d’s ambassadors found only ten righteous then He would have relented in Sodom’s destruction. So let’s look at a formula for determining if there are enough people in a country to prevent G-d from destroying it. Sodom’s population was about 1000 at the time it was destroyed. So G-d’s ambassadors needed to find at least ten righteous out of one thousand. That’s only one person out of one hundred. The United States of America has about 320,000,000 people living within its borders. One out of one hundred means about 3,200,000 righteous people need to be found. How many righteous are there in America? I suppose that depends upon your definition of righteous. Perhaps you don’t want to use the polls that say 80% of Americans are Christian as a valid number, preferring to narrow it down a bit to 25% evangelical. Perhaps we should narrow it down further, just because we all know not all who say they are evangelical are really True Followers. So lets say we consider 5% of Americans actually are followers of Y’shuaJesus, with righteousness imparted to them. That’s the equivalent of G-d’s emissaries to Sodom finding forty righteous with in the town.

So perhaps America doesn’t deserve G-d’s Blessing. But G-d isn’t going to destroy it now. If He looks, if He wants to know, He will find at least three million Believers remaining in America. But will G-d protect America from its enemies? G-d is in charge. A country, a person, cannot come against America without G-d allowing it. America has enemies both foreign and domestic. But its enemies will not destroy it. Not this coming year, any way. The ninty-five percent of Americans–yes, a percentage that grows each year–will continue to live worldly lives, even immoral lives. Babies will continue to be murdered before birth. Immorality will continue to be preached by Hollywood through films and television, and in the schools through corrupt curriculum. And the American media will continue its selective reporting, hiding some truth while preaching some deception. And Americans will face danger, even death, at the hands enemies from within the country, and from enemies in other nations. There will continue a racial division that breeds distrust and hatred among Americans, all promoted by some individuals in trusted positions in our own government. Our law enforcement and military personnel will continue to be targets of hatred and violence. A form of lawlessness will continue in America.

But, do not take it that America is weak. For we are, as we were before World War II, a nation of people who can, and will, protect ourselves and each other. We are a people who, despite appearances to the contrary, come together against common enemies and prevail. Americans are free, therefore we are free to squabble. But the enemies, both within and without, need only take a look at history and beware what lies behind every blade of grass.

As we put in the past one more year, saying good-bye to 2014, let us pray that we who are among the five percent continue to seek the Lord, praying that all would do the same.

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine upon you and yours. . .

Happy New Year!

Slaughter of Christians–”History Repeating Itself”

In an article on Breitbart’s News Website reports that Judge Jeanine Pirro, host of the Fox News Channel’s Justice with Judge Jeanine” argued that the slaughter of Christians in the Middle East was “history repeating itself.” The article follows:

“Why do we stand by and watch the genocide of Christians in the Middle East, it’s history repeating itself. But remember, it is to our detriment this time. Six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust while the world looked the other way…let’s hope we speak out soon, so others will speak out for us” she declared.

She also criticized Pope Francis, stating “as men and women are butchered, children tortured, their severed heads displayed with pride by jihadists, the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, puts the enormous weight of his papacy behind the plight of Central American children already in the United States, and he works to normalize US-Cuban relations, and does nothing more than call for constructive dialogue with Muslims over the Christian genocide. Since when does the Catholic Church look to mediate the abuser with the victim?”

Pirro also argued that the threat of Islamic jihad was not isolated to Middle East, pointing to attempts to institute Sharia Law in the US and saying “the lone wolves are here in the United States. America was founded by people who gave up everything, their families, their fortune, and their livelihood to ensure through the First Amendment, that we would have religious freedom, that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech.’ So why does it feel like we’re moving in the direction of our First Amendment rights being subjugated to the religions of others. When our president says an American should be prosecuted for exercising his First Amendment [rights] by making a video perceived as negative about Islam, when the former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton says, we need to understand and empathize with our enemies, we are on a downward spiral.”

The persecution of Christians is happening throughout the world. In Nigeria, Islamists have taken over large areas and imposed Sharia Law, persecuting and killing Christians. In the Philippians Christians have been persecuted for thirty years in some areas. In Viet Nam, India, Nepal, and in Western Nations as well there is a growing number of cases of persecution against Christians.

And it’s getting worse.

But we don’t have parts of the United States under Sharia Law. Why is that? Isn’t religion protected? We have a Bill of Rights. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

The First Amendment says that the government cannot prohibit the free exercise of religion. So Sharia Law could come about, you may say. Yet it is possible to rule against certain actions or practices of religions. In 1878 the U.S. Supreme Court decided that America could not prohibit the thoughts and beliefs of people regarding religion, but in the Court opinion, “Laws are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious beliefs and opinions, they may with practices.”

It is under this criteria that the government has forced children to undergo medical treatment when the parents, for “religious beliefs” have withheld it. This is the reason that Sharia Law, as a action imposed for “religious beliefs,” may be interfered with by American Courts.

The government has an obligation to apply its laws equally to all people. Those practices, those actions, that might be taken under Sharia Law that are illegal, that are against the Legal Law of America, may not be practiced.

At this time, despite some of the issues America has faced, that America continues to face, we are a Nation of Law and of Justice. Perhaps that is the very reason so many people would like to see America fall. But as long as there are some Christians, some Followers of Y’shuaJesus, remaining in America, America shall not fall.

[Abraham asked] Suppose ten are found there. He [G-d] answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it [Sodom].” Genesis 18:32

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

Memorial Day

Yesterday we observed Memorial Day in our customary manner: we sat near our campfire and talked of the times we sat with family by similar fires at Joe’s Woods in Pennsylvania. Joe Maciak bought the woods years ago for three hundred dollars. At the time, before larger highways, it was better than an hour drive south of Erie, where Joe and his family lived. Joe’s father had asked him, in Polish, “What are you going to do with this, Joe?” It became a place for Joe to take his two boys to hunt. It became a gathering place for immediate and extended families, some camping the weekend, others dropping by during the daytime.

Joe’s Woods is too far for us to go for Memorial Day now. But sitting near the creek that runs behind us, looking at flames licking at the trees overhead, we think of those days. “It’s s’pose to rain,” I said to my wife yesterday. And true enough, many of those Memorial Days at the Woods would be cold with drizzle and often moderate rain. The rain didn’t stop us, though. My wife’s cousin, Archie, would be up early building his famous Archie fire, a rival to the best campfire anywhere. My wife’s father and his brother would be up early too, if to do nothing other than encourage Archie in his efforts, and enjoy the warmth and company.

Fourteen years ago we missed Memorial Day at the Woods. Joe lay dying on a bed in his living room that weekend, with his family all around him. He died early in the morning when Archie would have been building a fire. When attendants from the funeral home carried him out the front door of the house, an American flag waved its proud goodbye as he passed beneath, another American sailor, a veteran of the Korean “Conflict,” passed from this earth.

So yesterday our American flag waved gently in the breeze as the flames of our fire reach toward Heavenward. But it didn’t rain– in the morning. It was warm, humid. Yet it was Memorial Day, and it was okay. I mentioned to my wife that Memorial Day is to commemorate American men and women who lost their lives in war. I told her about a friend of mine, John, who didn’t die in Viet Nam, but. . .

John and I met while I was at Camp Roberts and he at Camp Hunter-Leggit, which is located some miles north of Roberts. He lived with his wife and newborn boy in the other half of a duplex where I lived, in central coast town of Paso Robles, California. We became friends. John was on limited duty at Leggit, still hurting from wounds received in ‘Nam. He told me one day that he’d been in country [in Viet Nam] only four months when, while on point in front of his infantry company, he was hit by sniper fire. In a very quick “dust off,” he’d been evacuated to a field hospital, where surgeons cut him open from his neck to his belly, from side to side, patching him up enough to get him back to the next hospital.

Eventually he was Stateside. Months later, somewhat rehabilitated, he was assigned to an infantry company at Leggit, where war games were played testing new equipment and tactics. While still assigned infantry, he worked in supply, and enjoyed it. After John’s two-years were up, he “re-upped”–re-enlisted–and along with his family went to Germany. Once there, he was returned to infantry, but was able to move into supply fairly quickly. Three years later, John was re-posted to Fort Ord, a few hours north of Paso Robles. I saw him several times up there. He was still having trouble with his war wounds, still having surgeries to remove stuff: bone chips, metal fragments, scar tissue. He had not been able to be permanently transferred into a supply position. Eventually, he and his wife decided not to re-up, to get out of the army. They moved back to Paso Robles because they liked the area, even though their parents were in southern California. John found a job on a ranch in beautiful Shandon, just east of Paso.

In early 1980 I left the service and Camp Roberts behind, heading to Arizona for a communications technician job on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. On the way out of California, I passed through Shandon one last time to visit John and family and see the house they were building themselves. His work on the ranch was hard, but he enjoyed it, and the rancher liked him. His side and chest still hurt from places that just didn’t heal well, I recall him saying. I lost track of John and his wife and kids after that, which I regret. I thought of them on occasion, remembered them, and hoped the best for them. A few months ago I did a Google search for John, and learned that he’d died in 1986, just a few years after I’d last seen him.

As I told this to my wife yesterday, I thought of her father who’d died from cancer, of my father who’d died after suffering with Parkinson’s Disease for ten years, of my grandfather who died of cancer. All served in an American war. Both my grandfather and father served in two wars. They lived through the wars. They came home. They survived. Even their wounds healed without much of a trace, unlike John’s, who’d never take his shirt off in public for the scars left behind. But could their deaths have been linked to there battles? We know now that Viet Nam vets exposed to “agent orange,” a defoliant said to be so safe, are dying from it. I thought just how much war affects our culture, our way of live, from the loss of men and women in battle itself, to the debilitating affect it has upon those who “survive” for a time afterward.

And Rain. Here’s the thing about rain on Memorial Day. Rain is a symbol of renewal, of rebirth. Isaiah 55:10 says: “. . . the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater. . .” Rain is physical and emotionally necessary to life. Rain is cleansing, both physically and emotionally. I wish rain would fall on all of our holidays, both physically and symbolically, that we as Americans would think deeply of cost of our way of life, our unique American culture. And also of the cost to this way of life. We’ve lost not only men and women in battle, but to those battles. I pray that their lives are not lost in vain. And I think about all those who served America in defense of liberty and freedom, and the cost to them, for it is a cost we all share greatly.

Today, we are hated around the globe for what we have, and have done, in this world. Once we had a political will, and a political leadership, that proudly stood in support of our Constitution that explains our liberty, our rights. Our leadership stood firm also on Biblical precepts. We were one nation, under G-d. Sadly, our political leadership has been infiltrated by people with an ideology that would strip away the very things that made fertile the ground from which free men and free women have grown and thrived. The new wave of American political correctness, of Constitution bashing, of liberty stripping, is diverting the rain, and the drought that is upon America is grave. As has been said so many times before, if we forget what has come before, we inevitably repeat it.

On Memorial Days to come, let us not only remember those lost in battle, but be reborn with a rain of understanding for what they fought, for what they lost their lives. Let us remember, as our liberties are berated, that only the American Revolution was fought directly for our own liberty; all other battles were fought on behalf of others whose liberty and freedom had been taken or threatened. If we as Americans let our liberties slip away, who will there be left to defend us? Who will stay the hand of tyrants?

Accenting my thoughts yesterday, it rained lightly in the afternoon, and last night it rained heavily.

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

Christian Liberty in America

Several weeks ago I read an article, reposted at From the Lighthouse Blog that was written by Way of Life Ministries. The articles title asks the question: “What will be illegal when Homosexuality is legal.” I thought, “I don’t know of any laws prohibiting homosexuality; it’s already legal. Though it once was not.”

"Homosexuality is an abomination". — Sign off Highway: “Homosexuality is an abomination”.(Photo credit: Guillaume Capron)

The author clarifies the question in the first sentence, stating: “If homosexuality is fully legalized, meaning if homosexual activists are given every right they demand, citizens in western nations will be robbed of many liberties they have heretofore enjoyed. This is not a guess; it is a judgment based on current facts. The right to free speech and the right to the free exercise of religion, in particular, will be effectively destroyed.” (emphasis added)

It also occurs to me that the author seems to take it for granted that people who are homosexual are both political and social activists and have something in mind beyond the right to a relationship with a person of their own gender.

Okay, go read the article, then come back. Please.

I put this post aside, not really knowing if I want to approach it, if it’s really something I “need” to write. I’ve been to Pennsylvania on holiday. I’ve thought a bit more on this topic. I’ve read something else interesting, too. Reported on a website that speaks about American Christian’s being persecuted, the author says the United States president made an appeal to African nations while on his trip there, saying that he is proud of America for extending equal rights to homosexuals, and that African nations should do so as well. The equal rights to which the president is speaking is the American Supreme Court ruling that opens the door to redefine what constitutes a legal marriage in the U.S., i.e., two men, or two women, or a man and a woman, all would be a marriage under the government’s authority.

The thing is, whether we as Believers and Followers of Y’shuaJesus like it or not, it’s a secular nation, this America. It’s, according to America’s president, no longer only a Christian nation. That means that Christians no longer are able to determine the morality of the nation. That also means that the nation is no longer, if it ever truly was, a nation, one nation, under G-d, as the “Pledge of Allegiance” says. Although even when that is said, I realize that many consider any religion to be a means to the Christian G-d, regardless of any faith in, or even knowledge of, Y’shuaJesus. We are now a nation of many different people without a single ethical/moral code. And our laws, while perhaps founded in Biblical principles, are all that we have. Now even those are being redeveloped and reinterpreted. How this plays out is that despite Christianity that finds abortion, for instance, despicable and contrary to its religion, Christians, through taxes, must pay for abortions. Furthermore, the secular nation begins making a determination that Christians no longer may practice their religion in their workplace, their religious aversion to homosexuality, for instance, by refusing service to openly homosexual people. This, then, could very well be the end of America’s First Amendment right to religious practices in the U.S.

If there truly is a Gay Agenda operating in America, as many people believe, then there is pressure being applied that will forbid Christian’s the freedom to speak openly against any practice that the Bible forbids and the government approves. It’s really not about the freedom to practice un-Biblical acts, it’s about getting us all to approve of them, and doing so despite our Biblical injunction to condemn them. There goes America’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

To lend some credence to the “Gay Agenda,” a “Gospel” singer, Jennifer Knapp, titled a recent blog post: “Affirming Faith Voices Crucial For Advancing LGBT Civil Rights.” She’s an advocate to “advance LGBT civil rights” into the churches. Unless I’m misreading things, this means that an openly homosexual person would have the “civil right” to join any church he or she chooses, and remain openly homosexual. Nothing could bar the person from membership in a church that follows Y’shuaJesus and the Bible. That seems to mean that an openly homosexual person could not be barred from teaching “Sunday school” to children attending church.

Portal of the Church of Pilgrims, in Washingto... — Portal of the Church of Pilgrims, in Washington, DC, with a LGBT banner. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jennifer Knapp isn’t the only homosexual within the church. As reported at Way of Life, there are many more Gospel musicians that are coming out of the closet, and declaring they are homosexual. There is a movement within many churches to not only embrace homosexuals–G-d loves the person but hates the sin–but to embrace homosexuality itself. Jennifer Knapp wrote, “Author and minister, Rob Bell. . .is one of the most audible voices of modern Christianity, actively influencing an entire generation of Evangelicals. Recently, Bell publicly expressed his support for gay marriage with emboldened clarity yet, outside of faith-based circles, few noticed. He is one in a handful of articulate, compassionate, and influential religious voices willing to be responsible for moving a generation toward LGBT affirmation. Notable believers like Brian McLaren are crucial in helping Christians understand that the language used by their forefathers is one of an inherited and broken theology that must evolve. It’s important to find positive role models who admit to climbing out of the primordial goo and are willing to build a bridge to safety.” LGBT affirmation. That means church support of homosexual lifestyles coming to your church.

I suppose “broken theology” means putting aside the Bible’s “primordial goo.”

Today in the news:
A respected Indonesian Islamic group has called on the government to cancel next month’s Miss World pageant, saying women exposing skin in a competition violates Muslim teachings.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says the Pentagon will sell eight Apache attack helicopters to Indonesia for $500 million. The deal includes high-tech Longbow radars.

So, here in the once Christian nation of America, secular agendas are driving church policy. And in Indonesia, a religion is pushing the government to uphold its religious laws. And America is selling that government attack helicopters. Will those helicopters be used to defend the country against Islamists, or will the country become Islamic, and be yet another radical regime against the U.S.?

What’s next?

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

You are Not Allowed to Do That!

They were all eyes and ears. They monitored the doings of the people about them. They cast angry looks toward anyone who might dare to commit an infraction, or what they perceived to be wrong. They are self-appointed critics. The speak out at any opportunity, pointing out the sins of those they encounter, those they choose to hate. They are Accusers.

They are the liberals in America pointing fingers at people for doing what is, to the liberal, wrong, which is just about everything a liberal doesn’t like. They are conservatives pointing equally judgmental fingers at anyone whom they don’t approve. Some are worse than others. All have some basis they think gives them the right, the mandate, to be an accuser.

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids–blind, lame, and paralyzed [waiting for the moving of the water;] [for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and stirred the water: whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had.] One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.“

John 5:1-10 (emphasis added)

Now here’s the thing: “It is not lawful. . .” What they are saying is, “It’s not me telling you that you that you are not allowed to do that, it is (insert some reference here)!”

Standing upon some ruling, some law, they point there fingers saying, “I don’t judge, but the law says what you are doing is unlawful.” How many times have I heard some Christian say that he doesn’t judge people but the Word of G-d does? Too many. And yet who am I to say that he wasn’t appointed, like Jonah or Elijah, or whomever else, to point out the wrongs he is shown by Almighty G-d Himself?

How do we respond to accusations of wrong doing? To the credit of the newly healed man in the Gospel of John, he didn’t say “@$#%&$ Off!” Rather, he, according to Matthew Henry, wanted to give credit and glory to the One Who healed him, though didn’t know the man’s Name. He said, “He made me whole.” Eventually, the healed man learned the Name of the One who’d healed him, and told the Jews. Matthew Henry points out that while done with a mind to give glory to Y’shuaJesus, was like “throwing pearls before swine.”

Some points come to mind while reading the Word this morning, and reflecting upon it. One I led with, that too many people are self-appointed judges, regardless whether or not they are liberals or conservatives, or Chistians. Worse, I’m right there along with them. I have a very bad habit of pointing out the driving faults of most every one on the road, especially when my kids are in the truck with me. My excuse is that I want them to notice the wrongs so that they’ll know to do right. And I certainly get there attention when my hand goes to the horn, and it blasts away at some unwary offender. Yet, I’m just acting in the self-appointed role of accuser. Just like too many other people in this angry, volatile, ready-to-explode country, world.

But there is a more important point, easily overlooked when I get off on to a tangent. This newly healed man said, “He that made me whole. . .” told me what to do.

Thank You, Y’shuaJesus, for making us all whole in You. May we be bold and stand firm in You when accused of wrongs. For this newly healed man obeyed the One who made him whole. He stood, picked up his bed, and carried it away. In essence, his reply to those who accused him was, “I do not do it in contempt of the law and the sabbath, but I am obeying a greater law than the one you cite, for the One who healed me is greater than those laws.” (paraphrased from Matthew Henry’s Commentary) This man obeyed G-d.

Y’shua was accused of breaking the law, too. Many times. On several occasions he referred to scripture to support his action. He pointed out David’s eating of the showbread, of the priests’ slaying the sacrifices, and of the people’s watering their cattle on the sabbath day. Eventually, when accused of healing this man on the sabbath, Y’shuaJesus goes higher and alleges the example of His Father and His divine authority.

Another point: Y’shuaJesus was a radical. Why not just come back another day. That man had been there 38 years, so another day wouldn’t hurt. Then Y’shuaJesus wouldn’t have caused this man to “break the law” and carry his mat. Y’shuaJesus wouldn’t have broken the law, either. Well, why did Y’shuaJesus heal the man on the sabbath?

The other day I heard someone on the radio speak of the gentleness and kindness of Jesus. This authority on Jesus said Jesus wasn’t a zealot. I sorta figured he meant that Jesus just walked around Israel doing nice things for people, patting the heads of children, talking to outcasts, eating with sinners. Okay, so sure, Y’shuaJesus did those things. But that just isn’t ALL of the things Y’shuaJesus did. And to imply that it was, is to undermine the Word of G-d. It borders on deception. It also marks a man as not truly knowing Y’shuaJesus.

Maybe the Lord was just plain tired of the self-righteousness of a stubborn people who prized the “Law” over the people for whom the Law was given. Perhaps Y’shuaJesus wanted to stir up some trouble to make a point. I’m sure it got the attention of more than one person when He went into the Temple, in an act of fury, and drove out sellers and money changers. This gentle Jesus was also the One Who called Pharisees white-washed, empty tombs, vipers. Hum. Not so very gentle. Y’shuaJesus was a very dangerous man, one that the religious establishment knew would cause them distress, one that would undermine the all they’d done to get along with the Roman rulers. Y’shuaJesus was a rebel.

Y’shuaJesus didn’t come down from His throne to bring a temporary, carnal peace. He came to die violently for a true Peace that is eternal, offered to all. Well, to all as long as they believe that Y’shuaJesus is Lord and Savior. He said “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. . .” Hummmmmmm. That’s “hate” speech, isn’t it? I mean, He excluded a lot of people who follow the universalist religious views. And humanist who believe humanity is god, as well as New Agers. Well, let’s not go there, shall we.

The One Who healed me made me whole. Thank G-d. Blessed is the Name of the Lord Y’shuaJesus.

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine upon you and yours today and tomorrow, as we long for His coming. . .

“Die Religion … ist das Opium des Volkes”

Some weeks ago something was said that reminded me of a time, long ago, when someone pointed out to me that my religion was simply an opiate that dulled and blinded me to reality. This came from a person with whom I’d been very close. She told me she wanted to live her life fully, somewhat echoing H.D. Thoreau’s thoughts on life from his book, “Walden’s Pond.” I was, if I understood her correctly, living a life that was based on the illusion of better life after death, one that believed the illusions fed to me today, keeping me in a sort of bondage, addicted to a false hope that allowed me to endure without complaint the hardships of today, and to submit joyfully to them all.

So I began a little research. I learned the full quote from Karl Marx (published in 1843) is: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”

Then I looked at one of Karl Marx’s other publications, “Manifesto of the Communist Party,” published in 1848. According to Wikipedia, “it has since been recognized as one of the world’s most influential political manuscripts. Commissioned by the Communist League, it laid out the League’s purposes and program. It presents an analytical approach to the class struggle (historical and present) and the problems of capitalism, rather than a prediction of communism’s potential future forms.

“The book contains Marx and Engels’ theories about the nature of society and politics, that in their own words, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” It also briefly features their ideas for how the capitalist society of the time would eventually be replaced by socialism, and then eventually communism.”

Class struggle. For Marx, religion permitted the poor to remain poor through their religion suppressing any objection of those that controlled them. For Marx, those that exploited the poor used a little bit of charity once and a while to make them feel okay about their exploitation of the poor. And all the while “religion” allowed this to happen.

Now look at a source for Marx’s idea of opium of the masses: According to Wikipedia, The phrase “This opium you feed your people” appeared in 1797 in Marquis de Sade’s text L’Histoire de Juliette. Marquis de Sade. What a character. He was a total mess. He believed in unbridled freedom: the freedom to whatever one pleases regardless of who is hurt or murdered. What Sade is saying in his book is that the State uses religion to appease the people, to keep them in line and controlled. People are controlled when they look to their religion, their government, any world enterprise or institution, as their savior. And their religion supports this view, exploited, which is fully exploited by the state.

Furthermore, Sade said that that the appeased people become fully dependent upon their controllers, and fall into a mortal weakness. If their nation is threatened, they are easily overcome. It makes no difference to them who is controlling them, for they are poor, blind, and too weak to now object.

And it’s true, we see admonishment after admonishment by the Apostles in their writings that we are to live at peace with the government, live in harmony with each other, as best we can. And if that’s as far as we understand our religion, then we will submit to all forms of enslavement, joyfully going onward, blindly.

For the class struggle Marx desires is to envelope the world, for evil capitalism to be defeated, for socialism and communism to succeed and dominate. The way it played out in Russia after the Bolshevik revolution was a suppression of religion.

But it seems that suppressing religion is not enough; it must be replaced. Hence, in the case of USSR, the communist party becomes the religion, for it, itself, is the savior of the people from the clashes of class. Class is done away with, stamped out, molded by the Party into exactly what Marx accused religion of doing: first making the people into soulless serfs, announcing that they are the property of the State, and that the State will provide their “soul.”

While Communism and Nazi Fascism are different, opposed, the aim of each is similar, to control the people through replacing G-d with a hero-worshiped man. Take Austria in 1938. The country was in terrible economic shape. Stories of Germany rising out of economic depression at the false=messianic hand of Adolph Hitler led Austrians to vote to become one nation with Germany, to accept Adolph Hitler. Adolph Hitler was to the Germany people a savior, and now he would be the savior of Austria. There were few outcries from the religious institutions of Germany. Hitler took over. We know how that worked out.

In Germany, the religious institutions supported the Germany government, with some exceptions. One pastor didn’t go along with the Hitler. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He paid with his live.

Dr. David Livingston, a Biblical archeologist and scholar, writes that:

“There are some basic principles for “using” religion in controlling others. If we know and understand them, we may not so easily be caught in a trap ourselves.

“To begin with, everyone yields final authority to someone, some person. There are five possibilities among which everyone chooses who will control his life.

“First, we may choose ourselves. This kind of person may say, “I am the captain of my own fate, and hang everybody else. I will do my own thing.” Such a one tends to be proud, defiant and sometimes lawless because he has set himself up as his own final authority. This was the position of the kings and emperors of the ancient near east, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

“A second possibility is to yield to someone else’s final authority. This can be imposed on people by force. But however it happens, people become somebody else’s slave.

“The third possibility is to yield to God. This may sound like a good way, but there can be trouble with this position. The problem is that if the god to which a person yields is a figment of his own imagination, he is in the first category mentioned above. He is worshipping himself. People may think they are worshipping God, while they are only worshipping an idea of God they themselves imagined. Or, they say “visualize God to be as He is represented in some great painting.” But, that is not God at all. Some may say that actually all ideas of god are nothing but the creation of man to meet a deep-felt “god-need.” Those believing this need to go on to consider the next two possibilities.

“The fourth possibility is to yield final authority to someone else’s idea of God. This is where real trouble arises. If we yield to someone else’s concept of god, we become his servant. This makes one a slave of the most complete kind. Because anybody who controls someone else’s religious thoughts really controls his whole person. Israel was warned in Exodus 23:33, “. . . if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.” And by the time of the Judges, Israel had already discovered that serving someone else’s idea of god ultimately leads to servitude (Judges 2: 12,14). Jeremiah later pled with Israel not to serve the gods of the nations, “And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the Lord our God all these things unto us? Then shalt thou answer them, like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.” (Jeremiah 5:19, see also: Amos 5:25-27).

“When we serve a god that someone else has “dreamed up,” we become their slave. That is what the rulers of Russia, Japan, China, and other nations have done to their subjects. Rulers in the Ancient Near East did exactly the same.

“By now the reader will have begun to discover the most basic method used in gaining control over others. It is simply this:

“Whoever controls a person’s religion, controls his will; whoever controls his will, controls his thought-life; and whoever controls his thoughts, controls that one’s actions. Possession of another person as totally as this, makes him a complete slave, even though the person may actually seem free and have a high living standard.

“If there is one word which describes the method used to control others, it is “deceit.” Those who employ deceit are following the Father of Lies who has gone out to deceive the whole world (Revelation 12:9; 20:3,8,10). The fact that he can deceive everyone indicates that he has a number of agents using his methods. It also indicates that great masses of men — hundreds of millions of them — have been living in spiritual slavery.
How to be really free

“Thank God there is a fifth possibility. That is, we can allow our lives to be controlled by the True God Jesus Christ as revealed in the Scriptures. Jesus said,

If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.

(John 8:32)

“To be sure we have yielded our wills to Jesus Christ Himself, we should read for ourselves about Him in the Bible, the Word of God. No other description of Jesus is completely trustworthy. And having decided to follow Him, we want to be certain we are not just following someone else’s understanding of Him! Of course, we should listen to and read of the exposition of God’s Word by other men of God. A very important aspect of our obeying Christ is to be in fellowship with those of like mind. But, even so, we want to get God’s will for ourselves as directly as possible from His revealed Word.

“The True and Living God HAS revealed Himself. He is not hiding from us. He reveals Himself in His Word very plainly. Then, in the written Word we discover that in this last period of time in history, He has come into the world in the Person of His Son.

“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, Whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by Whom also He made the worlds; Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. (Hebrews 1:1-3)

“Will you ask yourself, “To whom have I yielded to have the final authority in my life?”

“”Religion” IS an “opiate”… but CHRIST IS LIFE!
And He said, “You are my friends if you do whatever I command you.”

“The antidote to spiritual slavery is to surrender our wills to Jesus Christ, then let our minds be washed with the pure water of the Word of Truth as we determine to obey Him. Meditating on God’s Word day and night will make one prosper and set him free (even though he might be a slave in Caesar’s court: Psalms 1: 2,3).”

Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .